When you wish upon a star
by thisisdumb
Summary: Beck was just going to go to her next class, hang out with friends, work on homework, and watch the next episode of Red Vs. Blue. However, when she ends up in Blood Gulch and her favorite web-series with armor, a familiar AI, and missing memories, she realizes things might not be easy. Rated T just because of canon-typical violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

(This is probably going to be really bad, but hey, I like it.

WARNING WARNING, THIS THING IS AT LEAST 75% SPOILERS, CURRENTLY JUST SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 4 OF SEASON TWELVE. Okay, sorry, you can continue now.)

**(Edit: I'm going back and putting in swears, because when i started this, i cared about not swearing, sorry if it looks weird in later chapters)**

Beck was late for her Psychology class, she'd gotten out of her self defense class a bit too late to do much more than put on a bit of body spray. She left the gym building and began going at a half-run to her class on the other side of campus. The girl with short brown hair began unwrapping the wraps she had put on for her class and ran through her mental checklist. 'So after psyche, gotta pick up Max, still need to finish my English paper, new episode of rvb today, gotta finish next chapter of that fic,' She continued through the list and put the wraps into her bag, she noted it was rather nice out, the sun was shining, a good start to June.

By the time Beck reached the building her next class was in, she was done with her checklist began thinking over what she had to do for Psychology. This was cut short when her foot never reached the bottom of the stairs, was never able to even enter the building, and instead fell into a gold colored void.

Beck didn't like the falling sensation, her stomach jumped around as she fell for at least a minute. Thankfully it felt she was slowing down, though it didn't stifle the panic she was feeling.

Then darkness.

The feeling of falling turned into feeling like she was being shoved, the light came back for a brief moment, but it was a harsh white instead of the soft gold. Grass hit under her feet and she lurched to the side, her head buzzed loudly and she was weighed down oddly. This combination made Beck stumble and fall face first into the ground. Her thoughts were scrambled, so she focused on making cohesive lines of thought. 'Well, that wasn't very fun. Maybe, things would be okay if I just close my eyes' That seemed like a nice idea, 'Just sleep for a while, ignore those voices coming towards you. They sound friendly.'

Through her visor she could see the grass, a few bugs crawled through it, out of the corner of her eye she could see brightly colored figures running toward her. She allowed her eyes to slip closed 'Nothing important going on anyways, probably just another weird dream.' One more moment of clarity before she drifted off, 'Why do I have a helmet?'

* * *

She didn't dream, so she probably wasn't out all that long. Beck did wake up in a panic though. She kept her eyes closed and gathered what she could, 'Bed, not under covers just set on top, not hearing anyone in the room, possibly some voices down the hall. What am I even wearing right now.' She allowed herself to open her eyes; if it was what she thought it was, no one would see her open them. Beck was rewarded with a concrete ceiling and a display screen projecting the time. Sitting up only made her mildly dizzy, 'The buzzing's louder now', and she looked down at her body. 'That answers that. Why in the name of sanity am I in Halo armor?'. She did a quick glance over herself, primary was a sort of sunset orange, secondary a stormy blue.

It would make sense she would have weapons to match, and she retrieved five different knives and two guns. 'Why. Why would someone put me in a bed, fully armored, loaded up on weapons, then just leave? Sure, they're probably just right outside, but still, this wasn't well thought out.' Beck then took inventory of the room. It was a fairly small concrete room filled with tools, ammo, extension cords, oil, and similar such things, all shoved aside to fit in the bed. Pipes were visible going along the ceiling and trough the walls. 'Did they put me in the fricken closet?' It looked like it.

Beck threw her legs over the side of the bed and made herself stand up. It was odd getting used to the new weight of the armor, she began moving her arms around to try and get used to it. 'I've got to get out of this place, my dreams are rarely this vivid.'

The door began to open, and in a moment of quick thinking Beck dove behind the bed. She heard a few footsteps, then they stopped. She tried to press herself as close to the corner between the wall and the bed as possible. The footsteps picked up again and Beck knew there was no chance whoever it was would just pass her by so she shifted to the balls of her feet, grabbed the closest extension cord and prepared to spring. She glanced up at the ceiling and spotted a pipe going from wall to wall. 'Perfect'

Beck only had part of a plan, this plan was fairly simple; tackle whoever it was, not get shot, tie them up somehow, find out what's going on, run for it. The moment the figure came into view, Beck launched herself at them. The buzzing still in her head seemed to sync with the buzzing of her own mind once she attacked. The maroon figure tried to lift his gun to defend himself, but Beck twisted it out of his hands with one of her hands while she brought the cord around his wrists with the other. She finished tying the cord around his wrists then kicked his legs out from under him so he couldn't try and kick her. The remaining long loop of cord was thrown over the pipe Beck had spotted and she pulled at it, therefore tightening the knot, moving his hands above his head, and pulling him back to his feet. 'So the armor's probably enhancing my strength, no way I could've pulled that off on my own.'

Beck remembered the knives, 'Intimidation's a nice tactic, right?' and she pulled out one of them and held it to the maroon soldier's neck. 'I assume he's a soldier anyways, although, that maroon looks kinda like...' He tensed and let out a small "eep"

"Okay" Beck almost jumped at her own voice, it had a voice filter that was deepening it to an acceptable male's tone. She decided to just roll with it. "Now I'm going to ask nicely, where am I and who are you"

"Please don't hurt me" Beck knew that voice. 'I should've seen this coming. I'm so dumb.' Her heart rate sped as her brain began trying to puzzle it out. She had to check though, there was too much that could go wrong.

"I won't, much." Beck decided on the safer option. "What's your name?"

"Um- I'm, uh Private Dick Simmons" Beck stomped her foot in frustration. 'I should have known, I should have known I should ha- but wait, when?' She could think of one way to find out if it was season one or not.

"Take off your helmet"

"Wait- What? Why?"

"Just- I need to check something, okay?"

"I can't take it off, you take it off, my hands are too busy being held in the air by a maniac!"

"Shut up, I'm not crazy, I swear." She switched the knife to the cord hand and began feeling around where she thought the release switch for the helmet should be.

"What are you doing?" She realized that it probably looked like she was stroking his jaw, not really helping the whole "I'm not crazy thing".

"Trying to find out how to get this helmet off"

"You don't know how to get a helmet off? That's one of the first things they teach you-"

"Hey, I know some other stuff you'd probably kill to know, Simmons. Make this helmet stuff look like child's pla-" A knock at the door. Beck switched the knife back to her free hand.

"Hey, Simmons, Sarge wants to know if that guy's awake yet" 'Grif.' Beck looked back at the sim-soldier she was holding at knifepoint and nodded her head in what was believed to be "Get him away".

"Oh, um, no, no, everything's fine, nothing to worry about" Beck rolled her eyes and moved so that she slipped the cord loop through her elbow and she was behind Simmons, the knife visible against his throat. The door inevitably opened and an orange armored sim-soldier was standing in the doorway, looking upon the scene. The door shut behind him.

"Well you could've said you were busy, I never took you for the kind of guy to be into this sort of thing, but okay-"

"What! I- no! He's-" Beck cut him off. She re-adjusted the knife so it caught Grif's attention.

"Stuff it. You, orange, take off the helmet,"

"Why woul-"

"Just do it. I need to see something"

"Fine, fine" He grumbled as he clicked a clasp along the neck, Beck noted where, and pulled the helmet off his head. For the most part he had light brown skin and dark brown hair. However along the left side of his face he had patched on light freckly skin and a small patch of red hair.. His eyes were also mismatched, the lighter side having a green eye, the darker having a nice brown The wheels began turning in Beck's head again.

"There, happy?" She was, but the happiness was being pushed down to make room for her questioning the various possibilities. 'I can fix things, if I find out when I am I could save them so much trouble.'

"Sort of, I just don't have as blank of a slate as I though I did."

"Okay..." Grif started backing towards the door. "I'll let Sarge know you're up then" Panic flared inside Beck, and she sheathed the knife. She then jumped toward him, moved his gun away from them and she hit the back of his head against a wall really hard.

"Grif!"

"He'll be fine, doesn't he get shot on a daily basis or something?" Beck dragged said soldier over to Simmons. She then looped the cord around Grif's neck, with enough slack that as long as it wasn't pulled on, he'd be fine.

"Don't put your hands down" Beck did a once-over of the room, figured she'd gotten everything she'd had and left.

"Wait, you can't just leave us her-" The door closed in between them and she could hear his, now muffled, protests. As she began running through the halls of the base, Beck began re-running season two through her head. 'What was that one episode, "Aftermath before biology"? it's after that, for sure. But how fa-' 'You recognized those Simulation soldiers quite quickly. It appears you haven't been entirely truthful then.' Beck stopped dead in her tracks, despite being able to see the exit now. She knew that voice too, and it didn't exactly comfort her. It was the voice of the AI who'd driven Maine insane. 'Did I now?' Beck started screaming, the buzzing was now recognizable as resonating with Sigma's voice, she didn't want to get her brain scrubbed. He was in her head. Out of all of them, why him. She kept screaming and was vaguely aware that a red and pink soldier were now running down the hall toward her.

Beck's gloved fingers scrabbled along the bottom of her helmet until she found the clasp. The buzzing cut off as soon as she pulled the helmet off, but a heavy dizziness followed. She flung the helmet with as much force as her, now shaking, limbs could muster. 'Why is he there, where did he come from, have i been here long, how did he get into my armor, why did it have to be him,' She then tried to break past the two sim-soldiers that had circled around to block her path.

"Now listen here... Missy? You are a lady right?" Beck wasn't listening, she was trying to push past, put as much distance between her and the ambition AI as possible.

"Move, I- I gotta, leave" She tried to push either one of them out of the way, if she could just make it out of here, she'd be fine. 'Would it really make that much of a difference though? What will I do? How would that help?' Beck stepped back away from them and sat down against the wall, she didn't trust her legs all that much. She put her knees to her chest and rested her head against her knees.

She realized she'd been tuning out the red soldier. She turned to look at him. The pink one, Donut, was walking down the hall, probably going to find out what happened to his friends.

"I said, you're not a psychotic nutter are you?"

"I'm not. I'm just a little- Just scared." Beck was willing herself to not cry, she was so confused.

"Are you sure? All that yelling like that suggests otherwise"

"I'm fine Sarge, just- give me a chance okay. I can fix- I can help out with a lot of stuff okay." Her head was still spinning, 'I'd like to get off the ride now'. She was actually really tired, maybe it would help with the dizziness. 'They wouldn't mind if I took a quick nap would they? No, it's fine'. Before she closed her eyes yet again, Beck saw Donut walking back with Grif and Simmons trailing behind him. She saw Simmons stoop down to pick up the helmet, then she went to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

(Disclaimers are a thing, aren't they. Um, I don't own Red versus Blue or Halo. Also, I personally do not swear, so I'm going to be a wimp and it's all gonna be f***ing bleeped out a**holes.)

**(Edit: Nope, all swears in ya cockbites)**

Beck was starting to get tired of waking up in different places than she fell asleep. She decided to explore through touch before employing her other senses. First thing she noticed was she was no longer in the armor. Secondly that she was in a bed again, probably the same as before. Lastly she felt a ring of metal around her right wrist, pressing down on what she believed to be braided bracelets. She listened for a bit before deciding whether to open her eyes or not, this was rewarded with the sound of pages occasionally being flipped. It was close by.

Her earth brown eyes opened to reveal a familiar ceiling, they'd put her back in the closet. A minute turn of her head to the left showed they had removed the tools and such from the room. Beck allowed herself a small grin at this. 'Guess they're at least a little smarter than I first thought.' A small turn to the right revealed that a small blond soldier, fully armored besides the missing helmet, was sitting there, reading something with one hand. Beck tugged her right arm and saw it was connected to his left arm via handcuff. He looked up at this.

"Hey, you're awake!" She pushed herself into a sitting position. She was in some type of underarmor and the sleeves were pushed up, revealing quite a few braided bracelets on each arm. Another quick once over revealed what "chub" the short girl had previously was all but gone, 'That's new. Time lapse? Must've found a routine that works then, this didn't happen overnight. And it would help explain all these bracelets.' She ran a finger over them, she recognized the braiding pattern, Beck liked to work on these while she thought, she needed to do something with her hands most of the time. They were all new though, no sign of her old ones. The colors were all very familiar, some solid colors, like red, cobalt, and black, while others had two colors, such as a gray and yellow one. 'Oh wait, left Donut hanging.'

"Yeah, I am. Where's everyone else?" Looking at his face straight on, Beck could see a starburst scar on his right side. 'How much have I changed here already, if this is a crucial moment then I could've interrupted something and messed it all up'

"They're all outside, spying on the blues." Beck had untied the pink bracelet, unwrapping it to about a two foot long braid.

"And why would that be?" She tied the ends back together.

"They're trying to get Lopez back, the blues kidnapped him!"

"Well why now?"

"It turns out he's holding some super important plans, something that'll help us defeat the blues!"

It clicked. Still season two. 'So we're there' She threw her legs over the right of the bed, grabbing the soldier's hand, pulling him to his feet, she grabbed his discarded helmet and handed it to the sim-soldier.

"Aha! Thank you Donut!" She plopped the pink bracelet around his neck. She began making a further plan 'Gotta act quick, but how. I'll tell them I know what going to happen. Would that work? One way to find out. Don't mess this up,' She made to run out the door but was jerked back by the handcuff.

"Wait a minute, how do you know my name?" 'Oh no oh no oh no oh no. Plan not formulated, please wait for witty reply to load.' She stood there stuttering for thirty seconds, brain slightly overloaded. 'ah, well, fuck it'

"I-uh, know what's going to happen. It's vital I get to the rest of your team before something bad happens" She needed to get out of there now, anything could be going wrong while she just stood there.

"So you're a psychic? That's so cool."

"More along the lines of you're a series I'm into and I know how things are supposed to play out."

"That's so cool" 'We're wasting time'

"As much as I'd love to just chat with you, we need to get going. Do you have the keys to this?" She lifted her hand and the handcuffs, pulling the pink soldier's hand up as well. She really did want to talk with him, with all of them really, but she'd hopefully have time for nail-painting and gossiping later.

"Nope! I gave them to Sarge for safekeeping" Beck sighed and ran her hand through her hair, it was still cut quite short. 'At least I'd kept my practicality, long hair would've been a pain to fit under that helmet.'

"Let's go then, I'm pretty sure this next part's a bit confusing, circle of confusion and all." Donut kept up chatter as he steered her though the halls, Beck was half listening. The 17 year old, 'But wait, if I'm missing some time, wouldn't I be older? My birthday was next month', was still trying to remember what was supposed to happen next. 'So they decide on stealth, Donut finds the "Cave Devil" then he gets caught? After he gets caught they negotiate right? That sets it up for Church and Tex to get their new bodies and the whole Parabola of mystery thing.' Then the more pressing question, 'But what could I do?'

It took a bit longer than she would've liked, Donut kept leading her down the wrong halls, but eventually they got to the group of three soldiers standing just outside the base.

"I'm just saying, how about instead of just getting me killed, we try and do some recon-" Grif was cut off by Simmons' yell.

"Donut! What are you doing out here, you're supposed to keep her inside the base" Beck flinched back, 'Did I mess up already? Of course they wouldn't trust you stupid, you woke up and started attacking, then started screaming.'

"No, no she's cool! I promise." 'Well "cool" may be stretching it,'

"Sorry about, y'know, earlier. I was a little... Ambitious, I guess" She couldn't help a small smile for the joke only she got. She continued,

"Also scared, mostly scared really. But you have to give me a chance to explain." She paused a beat, they looked among themselves, but didn't interrupt. Her heart started pounding harder as she tried to word what she wanted to say.

"I'm not from around here. That much is clear to me, I'm not supposed to be here. By "here" I mean, just, this everything, this universe, this time, this place, all of it." The red simulations soldier took her pause to ask a question.

"Then why in the hell are you here, and where the fuck did you come from miss." Beck became painstakingly aware they all had guns but her, they could shoot her right between the eyes and no one could stop them.

"Please, I- I'm getting there, I'm Beck, I'm from 2014, 17 years old, I think-"

"That makes you incredibly old, but still relatively young" 'Thanks Grif'

"And I'm not supposed to be here, because..." 'nicest way to word this, nicest way to word this..' She said said the next part as quickly as she could and stepped back, slightly trying to hide behind the pink soldier.

"You guys aren't supposed to exist, you're a video webseries based off a video game." That caused some chaos.

"Blasphemy, this is all just some plot to throw us off. I knew you were blue, just-"

"-doesn't make sense, well, it does, but that's impossible. Universe jumping-"

"-gonna have to call bullshit on that one, though it would explain-"

"-the coolest thing isn't it? I wonder-"

Beck was watching more than listening, it'd be too hard to zero in on any one conversation, it didn't look like they were going to shoot her dead right then and there. Maybe hold a trial fist. Donut would appreciate the theatrics involved with that. She absently fiddled with the handcuff and various bracelets, untying the bright red, orange, and maroon ones, but not handing them out yet. A loud bang made Beck jump in the air and almost fall over. Things went quiet and everyone was looking at the red leader, his gun still in the air.

"Now that I've got your attention, how do I know you aren't some kinda spy?" 'Has my time come, is this the moment for... Useless trivia?'

"Um, hold on, I've got this. B-because I know a bunch of facts that you have mentioned, or are going to mention at some point." 'Smooth, nerd' She organized them in her head regardless.

"Yeah! Like, she knew my name and I didn't even mention it!"

"Yes, Franklin Delano Donut, from Iowa, with a fear of spiders, who grew up on a farm, took Spanish in highschool, and has a fuckin sweet throwing arm, I did." Beck then pointed at Grif.

"Dexter Grif, Honolulu Hawaii, fear of... Bats, was it? Likes long walks on the beach, caught up in a one man draft. I could go into detail on this next part but I'll leave it at family members I'm aware of, mother and sister, sister is colorblind and named Kaikaina." Beck's response to the attempted interruptions, because they didn't just let her ramble, was to continue on and ignore any attempts to derail her from her new objective. She knew she couldn't stop now and rounded on Simmons.

"Dick Simmons, you already told me that, not sure where you're from, but you're Dutch-Irish, fear of snakes I think, "But I don't wanna join the women's league dad, I want to be a mathlete, a mathlete!", trouble talking directly with girls, funny because much later you're put in charge of a squad entirely made of girls, also, all around nerd I'd say. But that's coming from the girl looking for an excuse to rattle off trivia."

"Finally, for now anyways, Sarge. Full name unknown, congratulations you've managed to go 11 full seasons without any hint of a real name, Moscow Iowa, heights, hates Grif, you turned Simmons into a cyborg because you needed a tech guy and somehow managed to pull a Frankenstein with Grif, which I'm actually really impressed about that, and CPR saved you from a bullet wound to the head."

There was quiet and if Beck wasn't handcuffed she'd have run for it by now. She instead started looking at her feet, they were covered in the same material the underarmor was made of. Interesting.

'DidImessup, didImessup' She could feel disproving stares being thrown at her, she didn't want to look in case there actually were. The ground was much less complicated than people, she preferred to look at that. She heard Grif let out a laugh,

"Mathletes? Who the fuck wants to be a mathlete?"

"I did, Mr. Long Walks On The Beach. Hawaii huh?"

Beck let out a sigh of relief and looked up. She was prevented from smiling at the sight of Sarge still looking at her. Probably looking at her funny, or suspiciously, maybe he just fell asleep exactly like that, Beck didn't know, helmets are weird. He didn't fall asleep like that because he then started to talk to her.

"If I find out you're planning to hurt any of my men, Grif excluded,"

"Hey!"

"I will personally make sure you regret it." There was something about his tone, like he was carefully wording it. But not in a threatening way, which was odd given the content. 'Is this a test?' Beck responded with what she thought was the right answer.

"No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't hit a girl, you'd just order someone else, probably Simmons, to do it for you." His whole demeanor changed quite quickly.

"Welcome to Red team girly, best damn team in the canyon. Now what were we talking about?"

"W-wait, you're just letting her join like that? The only thing we know about her is she's probably close to 17 and is from 500 years in the past."

"Ooh! Don't forget the part where she knows all about us, our biggest fears, our tragic backstories! That's the exciting part."

"All I know is we're now in possession of possibly the most useful weapon around here. Knowledge." 'Would now be a good time?'

"Um, uh, sir? Small question, do you have the keys to these handcuffs? Donut said you had them."

"Did he now, then I probably put them somewhere for safekeeping. Simmons!"

"They're right here sir." The cyborg unlocked them and Beck rolled her wrist around, happy it was free. She took this opportunity to place the braid around the taller person's neck.

"I-Um, why?"

"I made them, don't know when, I think I've been in this universe longer than my memory is leading me to believe, but I've decided to give them out. Already gave Donut his Pi- Lightish red one, and that's yours right there."

"Okay, uh, th-thanks"

"Ha! You really are shit with girls." Beck walked over to where Grif was mocking him and gave him his orange one. He mumbled a thanks. She went to finish handing them out, but the red team leader was on the radio. As she got closer she could hear the conversation,

"So you're sure she's not on there"

"Yeah dude, checked, double checked, triple checked."

"hmmh, fine, Blood Gulch out." He turned to see Beck there.

"You shouldn't be using the radio you know, you are aware of the whole O'malley thing right?"

"That's the blues' problem isn't it?"

"It turns into an "all of you" problem. He can jump through radios, and is still at large because you guys all abandoned Doc, so he didn't get the "no radios" memo."

"Wait, that traitorous pacifier?"

"Yeah, pretty funny considering O'malley's the fragment for rage, of all the people to jump to, a pacifist probably wasn't high on his list."

"hmmm" It was quiet for a moment, everyone had stopped talking by this point, so instead of standing around and talking, they were just standing around. Beck's stomach let out a loud growl.

"Not to sound rude, but is there any way I could get some food, I have no idea the last time I ate"


	3. Chapter 3

(I'm really happy about the positive feedback! I'm still new to ff, so I'm not too sure how replies really work, but thanks everyone who's reviewed. Your comments inspire me to keep going with this story! This is more setting stuff up than actual action, that's next chapter.

I do not own Red Versus Blue or Halo.)

'Honestly, there could be worse things to do right now, it's not the most useless thing' Beck flipped a pancake.

'Yeah, this is really dumb'

Beck had started off just grabbing a can of soup or something easy, but when she found the box of pancake mix, she couldn't resist. She was making a large batch of pancakes and answering some of the questions the red team was asking.

"So warthog sticks then?"

"Yup, although, a puma is a real animal."

"Ha! Told you."

"Shut up"

"What season is it on?"

"Twelve, but you're in two right now,"

"Damn, that's a lot"

"When'd it start?"

" "Hey," "Yeah?" "Do you ever wonder why we're here?" "I dunno man, one of life's greatest mysteries""

"That was a while ago"

"Wait, I wasn't there for that"

"No, it was before you showed up, right when they got the warthog"

Beck started humming Blood Gulch Blues, missing her ipod, it'd been in her bag with everything else that'd gone missing. She finished the last pancake and brought the stack over to the folding table they were sitting at. They all had their helmets off but were otherwise armored and armed. She could see the cyborg parts on Simmons' face, the robot eye was really a nice touch. It looked rather well done too. She realized she'd been staring and instead just dished out food.

"So," Beck started after she'd finished a small plate. She'd been working out a plan for getting Lopez back, while still giving the blues their new bodies. "I was thinking, I need to get in contact with the blues, and we also need Lopez back." 'Though I could just tell you the disappointing truth of the message he's carrying. It's BS' "What had happened was Grif and Donut were sent to spy, but Donut wandered off, got lost in a cave, then ended up heading to blue base once he got out by accident. He was then captured, and the blues planned on making a trade, Lopez and Donut for two empty robot shells."

"Why would they need that?"

"Two of their members are dead, but they can take over people or inhabit robots. You've kinda experience this already, Sarge, he took over your body once during the whole Tex ordeal, and is currently inhabiting Lopez's which is why the warthog went crazy a while back"

"I knew it." Donut whispered.

"So what I was going to do is get myself captured while you guys work on the robots, we trade, basically the entire plot for the next three seasons shifts drastically. The quicker we do this the less chance of Doc/O'malley showing up in the middle of the trade and everything going down from there."

"But why in the name of the never-moving sun do you have to talk with the blues of all people, they'll just try to keep you for themselves. Greedy little..."

"Because they have someone who might know if I was where I think I was to get my armor and the AI" It turned out she hadn't mentioned that last part.

"Wait, you have one? Couldn't you just ask it what happened?"

"I was screaming and threw my helmet across the room, he's not exactly the one I'd want in my head. He's the fragment for ambition and creativity. In the other timeline he ended up making his agent go crazy and kill other freelancers for their AI and equipment. I-I guess I could ask, but there's no way I'm gonna waltz around with him in my helmet." Well that's a problem she hadn't thought of, if she didn't use her helmet, she couldn't really do much. It wouldn't be smart to walk around helmet-less either, everyone had guns. 'You could tell them to log off right? It's not a direct implant, so you should be fine, just rip off the helmet in a fit of panic if he says anything scary or tries to make you turn on your friends and murderer them all.' She wasn't really comforting herself.

"I think- I think I'm going to try and make him log off, if that doesn't work, I guess I won't be using my helmet then."

"And that's your best option? Hope you don't get brainwashed then hope the crazy computer just signs off because you say please?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Grif."

"I'm just saying, couldn't you just use someone else's helmet?" That was true. She thought about it for a minute. Simmons spoke up,

"You could use Donut's"

"Why his?"

"You two are about the same size. If you used his armor too, they'd just think it was him. He was the one who was supposed to be caught right? Grif could take you to the halfway point then you could go and get yourself captured while Sarge and I work on the robots."

"But what would I do? I really don't want someone inside me, well, not now anyways"

"You'd just, guard the base."

"Without my armor? Awesome! I'd be undercover, no one would expect me until I came at them and took them from the re-" Beck cut him off, and began gathering the now empty plates from the table.

"So it's a plan. I get in the armor, I get caught, I explain to them what's going on, we make the trade, and we're fine!"

"Actually sleeping beauty, it's getting to be late, me and my men need to turn in for the night"

"No way, it's only- oh, it's ten thirty, that sun really doesn't set does it?"

The soldiers all got up and started heading off to go do their nighttime routines, 'I'll just, head to the closet again I guess.' Beck had to backtrack all the way to the front of the base before making her way to where the closet that was functioning as her room was. Once she got there, she got ready to change out of the underarmor she'd been in for who knows how long before realizing something. 'I have nothing to change into' Well that's a bit embarrassing. She stepped back into the hall and waited for someone to walk by.

Eventually she heard an alternating between metal and skin hitting the concrete floor head down the hall. 'Simmons, he can help me' Beck reached out and tapped the cyborg on his human arm as he walked past reading a book. He was in a dark red t-shirt and gray sweatpants.

"Aaah! Oh, uh, it's you Beck. Y-you kinda scared me for a moment" 'Look at this blushing nerd, what a dork'

"Sorry. I just realized, I don't have any clothes, the only things I have are what I came here with."

"Th-that could be a problem, uh Donut should have something?"

"Great, can you show me where he is?" They continued walking, he looked like he wanted to say something.

"What's bugging you?"

"Hm? Oh, i-it's nothing"

"C'mon, I won't bite."

"Did people like me?" 'That's an odd question,'

"Of course they did, cute, rule-following, cyborg, tech-guy, nerd, with more than a dash of asshole, what's not to love?" The trip was finished in quiet, though notably less strained than before.

The two got to the door and the cyborg knocked on it. Donut's head popped out,

"Oh hey guys, what's up!" He opened the door the rest of the way and Beck saw a bit more of him than she'd wanted to. He had on booty-shorts and a tanktop that was just a little too short. Simmons was decisively not looking at him.

"Beck doesn't have any clothes so I thought she could borrow some of yours." 'I am not wearing booty-shorts. I might not have as much fat to be self-conscious about, but I have a while til I'm that confident.' Donut's face lit up,

"I bet I have just the thing! Makeover!" 'Please no, I just want pants'

"How about we save that for a little later Donut, promise. Just some sweats and a tee for now."

"Aw, I'm holding you to that promise Beck" 'I'm sure you will, and later is fine, right now I just want out of this underarmor.'

The blonde soldier pulled her into the room and the brown haired one gave a half-wave to Simmons before the door closed. She stood patiently while Donut held up clothes to make sure they'd fit her, almost everything did. Pants were the easiest, her legs were just a little shorter than his. Shirts had the added obstacle that was Beck's breasts, but they found her a tanktop that should work.

Beck shooed Donut out so she could change, and gave another half-wave to Simmons who was still out in the hall, reading his book. 'Ah, shit, there's cameras aren't there. Gym powers, activate!' She put the tanktop over the underarmor shirt and pulled the sleeves off, pulling her arms under the shirt and rolling it up around her neck. She put her arms through the tanktop, thankful for the sportsbra that came with her, and folded the shirt. She quickly pulled the pants part down and put on the sweatpants. It took less than a minute for her to be done getting changed.

She picked up the old clothes and went to open the door, her brain was running with things that could go wrong the next day. 'But Tucker at least wouldn't shoot on sight, as far as he knows, the pink one's a girl, and well, tomorrow I'll be the pink one. But should I do something about Domalley, totally calling them that now, anything I could do would cause suspicion. Although, sabotage would be a smart idea, he's working on that purple bike thing, if I take that out of commission for a while, he can't show up in it and take Lopez.' She opened the door and gave Donut a thumbs up,

"It fits, thanks a bunch!"

"No problem!" Beck started to walk back, Simmons went to help lead her back to her room. 'Good thing too, I wasn't paying much attention on the way over' She continued puzzling out what to do tomorrow. 'I'll make a quick detour to slice up some wires or something, then get out of there befo-'

"So uh, I like your tattoos, are those Greek letters?" She froze.

"Oh, sorry, are they something you're sensitive about?"

"Tattoos?" her voice could only squeak out that one word, she didn't want to look in case it was what she thought it was. She looked, on her shoulders going down her bicep on each arm were the compilation of letters that made up The Meta's sign. Her heart leaped into her throat as she tried to figure out what it could mean.

'Did I go meta? No, I couldn't have, Sigma was just in the helmet, not implanted, I'd know not to let him do that to me'

"Fuck, you didn't know?"

"N-no, I didn't." She forced herself to calm down, she was not going to flip out over this 'In all actuality I probably got that myself just because. I'd do that. It's just coincidence I ended up with my mind wiped in the middle of the same canyon the Alpha's in with the one searching him out plugged into my helmet.'

"Hey, Simmons, I don't have anything else unusual do I?"

"Well, uh, what did you used to look like?"

"Brown hair, brown eyes, I don't have blood red eyes or something do I? Sarge'd love that" Her breathing was slow as she calmed herself down, 'Well maybe it was just for fun, well maybe I headed out planetside while with freelancer and got it. Well maybe I told them the significance and maybe we all laughed, because that one of us going meta would never ever happen'

"Would now be a good time to mention you have a white stripe here." He motioned towards his head, miming a stripe down the middle. 'Well Maybe, Well Maybe, Well Maybe, Well Ma-' She was confused and angry at herself.

"God damn it!" She kicked a wall and Simmons jumped back at the loud expletive. Grif had been heading down the hall towards them and had sped up his walking a bit to see what the commotion was about. "What was I doing over there, making bracelets, dying hair, tattooing the symbol of the most terrifying mute in the galaxy onto my arms!" Donut had come back out of his room at the yelling. "Did I even change anything? Flowers is still dead, Church and Tex are still screwed, how much you wanna bet CT's still dead too!"

She ran her fingers through her hair probably a little harder than she should have, Beck didn't care. She leaned her forehead against the wall, there was shuffling behind her. 'And now you've drawn a crowd, drama queen. Good going. You probably look like an idiot, face on a wall an-and...' Oh look, she was crying. Someone put a hand on her shoulder. She tried to brush them off, but they stayed on

"Give me a minute, okay. I just realized how lost I am."

"Hey," It was Donut "don't worry, things'll work out in the end, right?" She let out a sharp laugh,

"Ha. I've already messed things up enough, and now here I am, and the only guy who can tell me what I messed up is the same one who's actions pretty much directly lead to you getting shot and left for dead by a previous ally." The hand on her shoulder tensed then was removed. 'Nice going smartass, he was trying to be nice. Well, ruined things over here, lets see if Blue team needs any more emotional wrecks.' Before she could attempt to run for it, or even stop crying all the way, someone else leaned against the wall next to her.

"That sounds pretty fucked up." Grif. "So what are you going to do about it? Because trying to push it down obviously isn't working" She responded with and ambiguous grunt. 'No, it worked fine, what're you talking about'

"I say, and this is just me, first off, lighten up, if kissass over there were in your situation, he'd fucking wet himself with joy."

"Hey"

"You would. You've spent this whole time so far trying to stop things that haven't even happened yet, the most relaxed I've seen you is when you were cooking, and I've got a feeling you were beating yourself up over that too. Secondly, try letting us know why you're flipping the fuck out, chances are someone could try to help, even if you then tell them they're going to die" She felt another pang of guilt at that, 'Sorry Donut'. She stood back up straight and wiped her eyes.

"You're smarter than you act most the time, Grif, I need to keep that in mind. I think that breakdown's been building for a while now. 'M sorry Donut, you don't die by the way, Doc actually manages to save someone for once, you two start your own little farm and everything." They were all just standing around in a state of awkward silence. All of them but Sarge, but who know what the fuck that guy was doing.

"Flowers is the blue leader isn't he?" Simmons was the one to break the quiet.

"He was, aspirin allergy."

"I think he was airlifted out of there. There was all this commotion down at Blue base a long time ago. He never got back there, but our intel says he was reassigned after an incident." Beck started smiling, there was about a 20% chance he was making this up but even if he was, he was trying.

"Thanks, sorry I got all emotional like that." Footsteps headed down the hall, and the Red leader came around the corner holding his gun, despite being out of his armor.

"What are you all standing around for, there will be no co-ed sleepovers on my watch, get your sorry asses to bed."

"Yes sir" Beck was lead the rest of her way to her room by Simmons, she had a small smile still on her face, 'Maybe I wasn't being as useless as I thought I was,' She went to sleep that night content with her plan for the next day.

Tomorrow was going to be an eventful day.


	4. Chapter 4

(Things are going to start rolling in this chapter, but probably won't stop rolling til next one. This one is pretty short just because I wanted to get it out there. I do not own Red Versus Blue or Halo.)

Beck woke up in the middle, or what she assumed to be the middle, of the night, she had no dreams again, so she couldn't have been out for long. 'RIP: my sleep schedule' Beck chose to bide her time until she grew tired enough to sleep for a little more. She tied and untied the bracelets mostly, thinking over previous episodes and what had happened. She also would occasionally try and think about the whole tattoos and hair thing, but didn't stress over it too much because she had no reason to jump to ridiculous conclusions. Or so she told herself.

A small time after she'd woken up, she wasn't the best at telling time, clocks were definitely her friends, Beck heard footsteps down the hall. Reflexes from almost being caught on her computer at three am kicked in and she shoved her hands and the bracelet she was holding under the pillow and began breathing slowly.

'Wait, why would someone be walking around in the middle of the night? It's either later than I thought, or something's up.' The steps stopped outside of her room and she felt a stab of panic. She was in an unfamiliar place with people she technically didn't know in the middle of a battlefield. 'If someone's come to kill me, I'm at least gonna fuck them up on my way out.' She gripped the string in both hands and forced her shoulders to relax, pretending to be asleep. After the steps hesitated at the door, started to head back and then come back up to the door, the person finally opened it.

Beck didn't hear any more footsteps, but she could've deluded herself into thinking she heard a sigh of relief, and the door closed, she listened intently at the footsteps as they went back from where they came. 'Okay, I'm sleeping with a knife from now on.' She had no idea who it could have been, but she thought that maybe every other step sounded a little louder.

After a few more minutes of staying up, making sure they hadn't just left to go grab a gun or something, Beck managed to get back into a troubled short sleep. When she woke up, she felt tired and slightly sick of sleep. 'Okay, I don't care if it's 4 AM or what, I'm getting a glass of water at least.' She made her roundabout way to the kitchen, where she saw Donut. He was in the same thing he'd been the previous night, sitting at the table, and eating a piece of toast.

"'Morning" Beck headed over to where she'd seen the glasses last and poured herself one.

"Oh hey! Didn't expect to see you up."

"I slept most of yesterday, I didn't exactly need a full night's rest. I kept waking up, so I decided "hey, I'm just gonna be up for the day." Where's everyone else?"

"Well we're supposed to be up and everything by 6, so they should be out here soon"

"Cool," She sat down and the sim soldier closed the book he had, Beck raised an eyebrow.

"I get up early so I can write in my diary before everyone else gets up."

"Okay then," He started going on about how he'd been recording some ideas to redo the base, "Because the outside's just so gray, I mean, I know we have lights and the flags, but think about it. A nice mural on the wall would look great!" Beck listened to his ideas, not that it mattered, he'd probably continue even if she'd fallen asleep, but she liked listening to people talk about things they enjoyed. A few minutes later she heard the voices of the orange and maroon sim soldiers heading down the hall. They soon entered the kitchen, already in armor, helmets under their arms.

"No, I'd say that's pretty fucking creepy" Grif.

"It's not, I was just checking up on h- Oh, um hi Beck, didn't expect to see you up yet." She shrugged,

"I'm just hoping my sleep schedule is still salvageable."

The two went and raided the kitchen for breakfast and sat down at the table. Grif looked up from the full plate of Oreos he had,

"Are you gonna get anything?"

"Maybe in a bit, I'm not really all too hungry right now."

"Suit yourself."

Beck continued listening to Donut go on about all his ideas until the other two asked him to "please for the love of god stop". She then listened to all their banter, occasionally inputting her opinion until the remaining member of their team walked in.

"Okay men, and Beck," She waved at him "today we execute plan Get Lopez Back, as directed by Beck. First stage, disguise"

"I'm not quite sure it's really a disguise, more of a "can't use my own armor" thing. But disguise does make it sound intentional, maybe I can voice mod, that Tucker guy's kinda an ass."

"Second stage, infiltration"

"Getting caught and telling them that they're a webseries based off a videogame."

"And finally, the payoff,"

"I come back with Lopez, and blue team gets robots, hopefully no interruptions on that part"

"Everyone know the plan?"

"I-"

"Good, let's get this over with"

* * *

Beck had put on the underarmor, then realized she had no idea how to put on the pieces of pink armor spread out on the bed.

"Hey Simmons"

"Uh, yes?"

"I couldn't even take off the helmet"

"What's that have to do wi- Oh, I see. Um uh, hey Donut!" He called down the hall where Donut was walking past.

"Yes?"

"Help Beck with the armor"

"Okay, I'm always happy to help a friend get in some pants"

Simmons ran Beck through a crashcourse in using the armor and what it did while Donut helped her put it on. She quickly caught on about which parts did what and how to alter things on the helmet readout, she was always a quick learner when it came to these things. He then began tinkering with the voice functions on the helmet for her.

"Here try this" Beck put on the helmet, it smelled nice, kind of like flowers.

"How's this?"

"Mmm, I'd say it's pretty believable, they should fall for it, why are you using it though?"

"Like I said, Tucker's an ass, if I want to be taken seriously, it's probably smart to let him think I'm a guy. He'd make lewd comments otherwise. At first he'll insist I'm a girl because this color is typically associated with females, but he catches on quick, male voice, male-ish name, he'll think I'm a guy til I unveil."

"Then, why take off the helmet at all?"

"Because if I'm right, Church probably's heard about me, and he'll know I'm "supposed" to be a girl." She had the armor on and put her knives and guns onto the armor.

Stage one: done.

* * *

Beck and Grif stood at the halfway point,

"So, I'm not going straight to blue base, I need to make a quick detour to stop our unwanted visitor when we make the trade"

"You sure it's a good idea?"

"I've been thinking it over, it's the best I've got. Even if we hurry this along, there's a chance he's already prepared."

"Fine, radio us when you find a time to trade"

"Will do! Don't use it until then, O'malley might still try to jump around." Beck then ran off to where the caves were. On her way in she mentally marked the places she'd been so she could find her way out. After a minute of wandering she began to hear voices.

'Bingo' She walked over and quickly peered around the wall of the cave. Luck was on her side, Domalley was facing the other way, working on the purple bike thing.

"I'm just saying, it would be a lot easier if you used a planner"

"I'm not going to use a stupid planner, evil is unpredictable,"

"If you think that you wouldn't be able to stay on track-"

"I can follow a schedule just fine, devouring my enemies' hearts sometimes takes longer than planed"

'Need to get them away from that,' She found a good sized rock next to her and flung it with all her might past the two into the other side of the cavern

'Sweet throw, maybe it's the armor that gives him his kickass arm' Not likely, it was probably that she was a lot stronger than before she came here, and the armor was just playing on that.

"Who dares trespass, I will destroy you and they'll never find the body"

"Maybe they're friendly?"

"More reason to destroy them"  


They started walking over there and as soon as they were far enough away, Beck sprang from her hiding spot and went to town on the bike with her knife, slicing any exposed wires and stabbing anything that looked important. She heard them coming back and bolted back to where she'd been hiring.

"But why would someone throw a rock over there, no one knows we're here"

"Hmmm, wait," She heard footsteps run to the bike

"Knives and rock throwing... Were there any women in that canyon of idiots?"

"No, the only one there was dead by the time I got there. Why?"

"Nothing, we're moving the timetable forward"

"So we're using a planner no-"

"For the last time, I will not be using a planner"

Beck waited for them to continue work on the bike 'Oh no, but there's no way the bike can be fixed in time, so we're good, right?'

She left the caves the way she came and headed towards blue base. She headed around the side and wandered around over there. She felt a gun on her back.

"So they sent a lady assassin to try and kill us, huh?" 'And there's Tucker'

Stage two: started


	5. Chapter 5

(Okay, I apologize in advance for google translate Spanish, but at least it's accurate to canon that way, right? I do not own Red Versus Blue or Halo)

She felt the gun poking her back, she organized a lie in her head before speaking. He started leading her into the base, she put her arms above her head casually. 'I hope this voice thing works'

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else, I'm no assassin"

"Dammit, and here I though I'd just captured the only girl in the canyon." A moment's pause,

"Is there a girl on your team?" They entered the base,

"No, why?"

"I overheard them talking about a screaming girl over the radio, I mean, I'd make her scream, but what was up with that." 'dangit, forgot that he's still getting transmissions from that.'

"Oh, I broke my helmet's speaker and it made my voice all girly, I had to switch out with the other short guy over there. He's probably just lounging around and I'm out here getting caught"

"What are you even doing over here?"

"Oh! I have a message for blue team, do you want to hear it first, or wait for your team?"

"Um, how about you tell me now."

"Okay, um, gimme a minute to gather my thoughts, don't interrupt once I get rolling, you'll throw me off"

"Whatever"

"What if I told you I knew your future, what would happen, how things would play out, the catch being that it was only in a universe where I'm not here-"

"I'd say you're fucking insane-"

"I said, don't interrupt Lavernius Tucker from, I want to say, Detroit, Michigan. You got that armor from your old captain, he was supposed to have died, but I've been told I changed that. The last thing Church said to you before kicking the bucket were that he'd always hated you the most. Decent soldier, if lazy and unmotivated, maybe best in this canyon though, "I'm a lover not a fighter", gets better though, you get chosen to be the hero of an alien race and do negotiations with your half alien son. You were upset you never got to use the sniper-" He held up his gun and cut her off,

"Who the hell are you and how the fuck do you know that"

"Now that I know I've got your attention, I'm Beck, I'm not from around here, Church should've at least heard of me, I just want to help."

"You can start by telling me how you know all this"

"How about when you come back with the rest of your team, I don't feel like repeating myself" He spent a few moments thinking it over then spat out a "Fine", and left her in the base while he went and got them,

"Can you do that for me" Beck jumped into the air, Caboose had come up behind her at some point. She regained her composure,

"Do what?"

"Tell me about myself, I forget sometimes." 'Poor kid, even though he's older than me technically.'

"Sure, Michael J. Caboose, you're from a moon colony, and have 17 sisters, that's a lot." She noticed she took on a softer tone when speaking to him, 'Eh, so what if it sounds like story time.'

"Yes, I like this part"

"You're very strong, stronger than most people think, like an ox, but you don't have horns or lumberjack friends. You're-"

"Just what the hell is going on here?" A white ghost faded into view in front of Beck, Tucker came running back into base

"Dude, at lease try to use doors"

"Hey Church, I'd like to assume you know about me, even just a bit"

"Yeah, Tex's mentioned a Beck, but that's always a girl, so who the fuck are you?"

"Weeeelllll, voice mod technology's actually been out for a while, and considering you guys are in full body armor 24/7, I'm surprised no one's tried to replace one of you. It'd be pretty easy"

"Wait, you're saying you're a chick?" She instantly shot a glare at the teal soldier, pausing in taking off the borrowed helmet,

"Try anything and I will hurt you, I'm, technically, still underage." She took it off and made a half-hearted attempt to fix her helmet hair,

"I don't remember anything that's happened between my leaving home and then my showing up near red base yesterday, I was kinda hoping you could fill me in, apparently I've done a lot."

"Tex never really went into too much detail, just that you watched their backs and saved them from a couple sticky situations, you could ask her, but,"

"But she's not here right now, I know, I'm actually working on that as we speak! Well, Red team is anyways. You see, what was supposed to happen is Donut, the pink one, gets caught by you guys and then you work out a trade: Lopez and Donut for two robot bodies, one robot per prisoner. I actually need to see how far done they are with that actually," She trailed off, thinking about timing, 'It shouldn't take them too long to build the robots right? They got that fancy little kit and everything, and with two of them working on it it should only take-'

"Woah, woah woah, wait, what do you mean 'supposed to happen'?" Church sounded thoroughly confused.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, she probably didn't mention that part. Like I said, I'm not from around here, I'm from a universe where you, this entire canyon, freelancer and all that, are a webseries based off a videogame series. I've watched the webseries, and am now in it. However, like I said, I've got not memories of being here before yesterday." Two of the three soldiers stayed quiet for a moment, trying to process this new information. The standard blue one however,

"Aw man, I hate when that happens," 'I really don't have anything to say to that'

"If you aren't legal, how old are you then? Don't you have to be like, 18 to join the military?" 'Okay, nipping this at the bud'

"I'm just going to tell you that if you act like an ass, I will cut something off, maybe a finger, some hair, but maybe not, I've got a lot on my plate and can't deal with your bullshit right now."

"Jeez, I was just wondering, no need to be a bitch about it."

"I'm 17. Sorry I'm reacting a little harshly because, as cool of a guy as you may be, you don't, or won't, anyways, have the best track record with these kind of things. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta find a time to make the trade, the quicker we do this, the lower the chances of you getting shot with a rocket launcher" She put the helmet back on, walked a bit away, and turned on the radio, aware the others were talking behind her back.

"Hey, about how long?" Simmons answered her after a moment,

"I'd say two more hours, meet at the halfway point?"

"Okay! See you then, keep the radios off." She hung up and walked back over.

"Two hours, we're meeting them at the halfway point, we make the switch. Any questions?" Church hesitated slightly before presenting one.

"Why don't you just stay with us? If Tex knows about what happened, she could just tell you when she gets back?"

"Red team's already called dibs, only way I could come over here is if I then went back over there" Church started complaining,

"Uhg, now they're gonna have even more people than us"

"But you guys have Tex, she's about twenty of us"

"But you have that whole "know the future" thing going for you"

"If it makes you feel any better I had no idea how any of this armor or anything worked until right before I left"

"Well, I know I can help you take it off, if you know what I mea-" Tucker started, before being cut off

"However, look at these cool knives I've got, wonder if they'll go through bone!" 'Okay, so maybe the bantering isn't so bad,'

"I've got a bone you can see, baby"

"Okay, hold on, let me get my knife out" He stopped replying after she actually started to take out a knife. Beck broke out into a grin, "I have a feeling we're gonna get along just fine, Tucker."

Stage two: complete.

* * *

Beck was sitting on a couch, absentmindedly inspecting one of the five knives. She'd given out the bracelets, giving Tucker Church's and Tex's to hold onto for their new bodies, and they'd went their separate ways. Church had gone back to possess Lopez and paint him brown again after Beck warned him about the possible robot uprising. Caboose had gone who knows where and was doing who knows what. Tucker was in the rec room with her, this had spurned a few comments about what kind of recreation they could get up to. Beck had taken great joy in deflecting every single one of those comments, it was like a game.

She felt a growl in her stomach, 'I never did get breakfast did I? Nervous I guess,'

"Hey, what do you guys have in means of food around here?"

"I'm sure I could fulfill all your-"

"Yeah, no. I'm actually asking,"

"I dunno, we have a bunch of mayonnaise, if you want that"

"Why woul- Oh! Caboose traded the crockpot for that didn't he?"

"Yeah, don't want to know how that was brought up"

"You tried to get info out of Donut, but all he told you guys were a bunch of crockpot recipes. You explained this to Church then when he asked if you even had one, you told him Caboose traded it for 140 jars of mayo"

"That's just fucking weird" He began leading her to the kitchen, once they got there, she found it in a state of disarray. A quick search of the cabinets lead her to believe these people lived on crackers, rice, mayo and anything else they could somehow find in the midst of the mess.

"My word, Red team's more organised than this, where do you guys even get food around here?" She grabbed a box of crackers, checking it wasn't somehow defiled by the mess around it.

"Command sends down food every month or so, we put it in here, simple"

"I'd say this place needs a woman's touch-" She shoved a cracker into her mouth

"Bow chicka bo-"

"But I'll go so far as to say, you need a Simmons or something to keep this place in check"

"That's the maroon guy right?"

"Yeah, good at organizing, making things orderly. See, even though they have Grif, they have three others who have at least some idea of some form of organization."

"We're kinda a bit dysfunctional right now in case you didn't notice"

They continued sitting there for some period of time, just talking, until Church came up to them in Lopez's body,

"It's almost time to head over there, where the fuck is Caboose"

"Yes?" Beck turned her head slightly to see Caboose now standing there.

"Son of a-! Whatever, let's get this done before whoever our mystery guest is shows up"

Beck put her helmet, technically Donut's, back on and they filed out of there. When the neared the halfway, Beck asked to speak with Lopez before they headed over.

"He speaks Spanish, you do know that, right?" She gave him a look through the helmet, and she knew the ghost caught her drift,

"Jeez, fine, talk to the damn Spanish robot," He left Lopez's body and the robot immediately turned to go back to the base, probably back to Sheila.

"Wait! Lopez!" Her voice was still deepened through the helmet, wasn't it? Beck ran in front of him and held out her hands, "Hear me out, okay"

"Mi equipo me ha traicionado, no quiero tener nada que ver con ninguno de estos idiotas"-My team betrayed me, I want nothing to do with any of these idiots-

"Okay, that was all just one big misunderstanding because yeah, they're not always the brightest bulbs. They thought you were blue team, staging some assbackward attack"

"¿Me entiendes?"-You understand me?-

"I lived in Arizona most of my life, I picked it up after a while. Now listen, you're tired of them, I get that, but as things are going right now, it's either working for idiots here, where you can probably go and talk with Sheila once I get things to settle down, or working as a minion to the "main villain" of the first five seasons as just a very determined head. I promise to find a way to make things easier, I can translate most of your ideas, so they can't just ignore you, maybe get you an English voice chip if you wanted it, but for now, I need you to trust me okay?" Lopez the Heavy was quiet for a moment, processing her offer.

"Bien, pero no voy a disfrutar de ella"-Fine, but I won't enjoy it- She felt her face light up,

"Thank you!" They walked back to the group, Church had gone for high ground to watch the exchange, making sure no funny business went down. After a few moments she saw Red team leave their base, minus Donut, and the robots alongside them. Beck waved at them and got a wave, a nod, and a half-wave, in return.

Stage three: started.

"You send over our people, then we'll send over the bots, got it?" The Blue team reluctantly sent over their "hostages" first, Beck assured them she would make sure the robot shells got over. 'Halfway across and things are looking good' Of course the moment the words dare cross her mind, a large explosion behind her caught her attention. Tucker was running from a singed area of grass. Shooting the missiles that singed the grass was none other than Domalley himselves.

"Careful, this thing's really really loud!"

"How about we try not being careful and getting hit by it instead!"

Beck noted, a little smugly, that the cycle was trailing smoke and making jarred motions every once in a while, throwing off their aim. That thing wouldn't stay in the air for long. She did a quick headcount of the Reds and Blues, none of them had been taken down, that was good.

Beck grabbed Lopez's hand and began trying to pull the robot towards the base faster. He didn't move at first, questioning why she was tugging at his arm, but ended up following her lead. 'He doesn't know it's me, we're fine, just need to get Lopez to the base befor-' An explosion sounded

Beck felt an arm wrap around her waist and list her off the ground, 'Nononononononononononono' She kicked wildly to try and get free. Three words connected in her brain, 'Radio, Helmet, O'malley' and in a flash she ripped the helmet off her head and tossed it bellow, like hell was there any chance she was gonna even present an opportunity to take over her mind. She heard his voice right next to her ear after she dropped the helmet.

"I knew you had to be in this canyon somewhere, Beck."

"I didn't!"

"Silence, fool"

The cycle started heading up the base and to the portal when something landed on the back at the same moment the engines started stalling again. The bike slid across the roof, stopping short of the portal. Beck used this distraction to pry herself out of their grip. She rolled away a small bit and saw Lopez getting up from the crashed bike. From the corner of her eye she noticed the Reds and Blues were making their way up to confront the purple villain. She noticed Domalley wasn't out for the count and scrambled to her feet, pulling out a knife and holding it in a defensive pose.

"Well that was an annoyance, I'll make sure your end will be particularly awful for this, robot." He leveled the missile launcher at him and Beck ran forward to push it away from Lopez.

Beck wasn't too sure of what happened next, but she had a decent idea. She pushed the launcher out of the way, causing the projectile to hit the canyon wall harmlessly and suddenly the nearly scrapped cycle they were standing on kicked back to life, launching it's occupants through the portal.

It started raining metal once they went through the green rectangle, most of the cycle had hit the frame of the portal, and what hadn't hit it was being propelled through in pieces. Beck felt someone wrap themselves around her, protecting her helmetless head as thing got bad. There was a brief sensation of falling before her head hit on the armor of the robot holding her, causing her vision to fade and things to go dark.

Stage three: complete(?)


	6. Chapter 6

(I'm working at a summer camp for most of the week, so these might not be out as fast anymore. I will try for weekly though. This one may be a bit long, and ends kind of abruptly, sorry.

I do not own Red Versus Blue or Halo)

Beck awoke to a headache and voices, neither were very pleasant.

"Well, I think she should be waking up now, she might have a concussion, I think I've got something for that"

"Don't try to help her, you'll probably make it worse. And while typically that would be encouraged, I need her for my plan"

"No, I can deal with concussions, that's the one with the weird pupils right?" There was a shuffling noise and then Beck felt her eyelid get pulled back. She saw a purple hand holding a flashlight and then a bright light shined into her eye,

"Ah, fuck!" She pulled away from the light and covered her eyes, both the light and the motion didn't help the headache, she felt a tentative tap on her shoulder. She grumbled loudly and sat up,

"Fine, fine, I'm up" she was on a cot set up in what looked like what had previously been a rec room of sorts. There were chairs knocked over by a broken table, she thought she saw dried blood. 'Well that's encouraging'. Her attention turned to the man in purple armor next to her.

"Are you okay?" She knew who was in this man's head, she wasn't exactly going to just sit here and play nice.

"My heart hurts like a motherfuck. Do you have any aspirin?" She clutched her head and waited for her chance,

"Um, I'll check" 'O'malley's sure being quiet, I know he's in there' Doc leaned to the side to rummage through a medical bag that looked as worn as the room. 'Here's my chance'

Beck swung her legs off the bed and kicked the purple medic as hard as she could, making him fall over. She then jumped to her feet and started running, ignoring the throbbing coming from the bump on her head. She fiddled with the door for a bit, the purple figure now getting up and seething with rage. She got it open and broke into a sprint down the halls of the strange building. Every once in a while she passed a torn blue flag, caught a glimpse of the name at the bottom. 'Sidewinder?'

She kept running, at one turn she glanced back to see if he was still following her 'Shit! He's gaining, Doc ran track didn't he? Gonna have to stop and fight.' She skid to a halt and reached for a knife to find that she didn't have one. Beck made an attempt to salvage the lead she'd had, but she got tackled. I took most of her concentration to prevent the back of her head from hitting the floor. This was not helped by the forearm that started pressing down on her neck and the added weight of a person on her torso right after her hitting the ground.

Her eyes kept trying to slip closed from exhaustion, she didn't know the last time she'd ran like that, never in her current memory at least! She had enough sense to take her one free hand, the other being pinned under a knee, and push back on the arm that was slowly cutting off more of her air supply. She could hear the angry breathing through his helmet.

"I suppose it's good to see you've not lost your determination despite your gaining buckets of foolishness." Beck pushed against the arm until she had room enough to talk,

"What's so foolish about trying to get away from the main villain of five seasons? Most would think getting the hell out of there is the best choi-" Her breathing was cut off again, she shoved back harder. In the back of her mind she was thinking how to unbalance them, so she could try and make an escape again.

"For someone likely wanting information, you don't seem to want to hear me talk." 'Probably not smart to be rude to him, but hey, I'm not taking this lying down. Well, I literally am, but figuratively speaking, I'm not' Some of the pressure was taken away,

"Sorry, are you okay! Although exercise is good for head injuries, I'm not sure hitting your head again would help." 'Exercise isn't good for head injuries.'

"I'll be fine, you ran track in highschool, right? Least directly competitive sport you could find"

"Yeah, that's right, how did you know that?"

"What, O'malley didn't tell you? I thought you were sharing a brain or something"

"No, I think he can read my mind, but I'm only getting feelings and stuff. He's angry pretty much all the time though."

"Yeah, there's probably a reason for that. But why didn't he tell you, I mean, I know he's a dick-" Cut off again, she wasn't finding any opportunities to flip him off her. She started organizing trivia.

"He only knows what he has to; cooperate or die! Painfully!"

"Still, the rest of Blood Gulch knows, and I've been thinking up a list of facts I could say to freak him out! I mean, don't you want to know a bit about your better half's future and past?" There was a moments silence,

"Only if you swear on your own kidneys to not try and run away"

"Hmmm, how about if I don't run until we get back to the room we were in. Then I can try again"

"Deal, but solely because I'm supposed to meet someone near there." Beck briefly wondered who it could be and stacked it up to two options, Lopez or Wyoming. Domalley got off of her and she sat up and rubbed at her throat before pushing herself to her feet. She started being lead back to the room she'd escaped from.

"I said I'd rattle off facts, didn't I? Where to start... Frank 'Doc' DuFresne, ran track, pacifist, went to Jamaica State, flunked out of med school, pestered his way into a slightly higher rank, vegetarian I think, has a rather shitty throwing arm, and is generally interested in maintaining the environment. This whole Domalley ordeal leaves you a bit more assertive. You seem to have a knack for ending up with the villains, first Omega, and then later you're dragged around in a piece of wall as a hostage to someone tracking the Reds and Blues. You get better at medicine and even save Donut after he's shot by the guys who held you hostage" She trailed off, thinking of more facts she could recite without giving too much away. Doc was quiet for a while,

"That's a little unnerving" The medic didn't seem too happy about how his future was looking.

"Muhaha, he really didn't like that, tell me more about his doomed future"

"After saving Donut he ends up staying and creating a sustainable farm, they baked banana bread for the other Reds and Blues one they showed back up and figured out Donut didn't die. When the others are stranded on a jungle planet, he and Donut intercept a message from them asking for help so they go down to hel-"

"Nevermind, that sounds too cheerful, go back to the part where he failed medical school, or tell me more about the idiot getting stuck in a wall"

"No. I won't. He's also an all around nice guy, I suppose, least violent of the guys from Blood Gulch, I'd probably like to get to know him better actually."

"You know I am still here right?"

"Yeah, sorry, I'm not used to this whole two people at once thing, but you're a good guy, DuFresne, just have bad luck sometimes."

"Ugh,"

They walked a bit farther, she was surprised she'd ran so far,

"I should probably mention at this point I have no memories between leaving my home universe and yesterday."

"Really? I thought you'd just be quietly killed once you outgrew your usefulness to them"

"That's nice, then maybe I'm still useful to them. I just thought you should know, in case it's part of your plans or something."

"I only need what you know now, I'll fill in the rest myself"

They got back to the room she'd started in. Beck walked right in and plopped back on the cot, now watching for an opening to escape.

"I still have to check you for a concussion though" She sighed, 'Of course you do'. Her head hurt less now at least. She tolerated the purple man's closeness as he shined a small flashlight in her eyes. Her hands curled into tight fists. It wasn't the medic so much as his unwanted roommate that made her on edge,

"I don't think there's anything wrong, your pupil dilation is working, that's good right?"

"Yep, I'm fine. I'll still take the aspirin if you're offering, I won't kick you this time" Despite not having had a surplus of weapons on her in the past, she'd grown used to the fact she could probably kill a man if she needed to in this strange environment. She needed to do something with her hands. Beck started tapping out a beat and humming the Agent Tex theme. Domalley came back and shoved a water bottle at her and slapped two pills into her hand.

"I made sure he didn't poison you, but if you want it to stay that way, stop that song." It crossed her mind to stare him down and finish the riff, but she didn't want to push it more than she'd already had. She settled for examining the pills. 'Yup, aspirin' She downed them, 'Can't run for my life with a headache can I?'

"It was a selfish move throwing the helmet. It would've made this simpler for everyone involved, the idiots would be obliterated by now, put out of their misrible lives, and we would have emerged victorious. All I've got to work with now is a stubborn child, a pathetic medic and a robot that doesn't even speak English." Beck snapped her head up before she could stop herself. Domalley had been watching for a reaction.

"Is the robot important to you?" 'That sounds like a trick question, shit.' She didn't know how to respond,

"He's the one who tried to save me from an idiot, and while I'm not surprised he got caught up in this, I was almost hoping he wouldn't." She could practically see the gears turning in Doc's head, not necessarily his own gears, but there was turning nonetheless.

"Intriguing. I'll have to check something" Domalley turned from her and began leaving, her heart jumped to her throat and she felt a pang of worry for Lopez. She swallowed it down as to not show her weakness to the enemy.

"See ya Doc"

"Bye, I guess" She ran to the door the moment it closed, she could hear a noise on the other side. After the steps went away she tried to open the door, but the doorknob didn't move. 'Okay, okay, he'll just probably find out about the weather machine. Then he'll work on that, and I'll make my escape. Ohh, but I can't leave poor Lopez here all alone. Fine, get out of this room, get armed, then get Lopez.'

Beck searched the room she was in, 'It sounded like he was planning on possessing me, so if I were going to possess someone, I'd just hide their stuff until I could get to it in their body. Yes, that sounds like Domalley logic'

It turns out her crazy plan was right. 'Wait did that seriously fucking work?' She was rewarded with her guns and knives, stuffed in the fake back of a cabinet.

Now for the door.

She'd fiddled with the knob side, trying to slip a knife into the doorjamb, to no avail. The hinges seemed to be the weakest point. She naturally took the stupidest/easiest way to get them off. She'd never shot a gun before.

Two loud bangs and a lot of fidgeting later she pushed away the hinge side of the door far enough from the wall that she could squeeze through. She then wandered decisively through the building, listening for any voices. On her way she found the exit and marked it's place in the back of her mind. She caught a hint of voices so she poked her head around a corner and saw Domalley getting up from leaning over Lopez's body, wires were sticking out. Before they could turn and see her, Beck ran around the corner until they walked past

"I knew those D batteries were a good investment!"

"No, you just got lucky, it could've run on C batteries, then you would've been foolish."

She waited until they were a good distance off and she ran back into the room. She smiled at him,

"Lopez!"

"¿Estás bien, hija?"-Are you okay, child?"

"I'm fine, we need to get out of here, but..." 'I don't think I can fix all those wires, maybe I could just...'

"How would you feel about temporarily being a head if it gets us out of here?"

"No te preocupes por mí, sal de aquí." -Do not worry about me, get out of here-

"Ha! Like that's gonna happen, head it is then. Give me a hand?" He verbally lead her through the process until she'd disconnected and reconnected all the wires necessary. Just as the last wire was reconnected, she heard the footsteps down the hall. She grabbed the head and held it close like a football and hid next to the door. Once Domalley came in she kicked him in the side and ran out the door.

Now that she knew where the exit was, it was easy to escape. She ran outside into the snow towards the only other structure she could identify in the whiteness, Sidewinder Red base. 'Grif and Church are probably in there right now' She was so determined on getting to the building before Domalley caught up with her that she didn't see the man in white armor against the white backdrop.

Beck ended up slamming right into him. Her one arm stayed wrapped around the head, the other was caught by the figure, pulling her back to her feet before she could fall on her butt. She recognized the accented voice,

"Ah, hello Beck, long time-" She let go of the hand, and started trying to get around Wyoming,

"nonono, nope, fuck this shit, sorry, I'll talk later okay?" She finally pushed past and ran into the Red base, 'Sorry, but I've already got enough Freelancer-problems to work around right now, and if I remember right, he's currently a badguy.'

"¿Quién era?" -Who was that?- Beck spoke a little fast as she navigated the halls

"Freelancer, not important at this very second, I don't have time for guessing what he knows right now, I think Sarge put a bomb in Church's gut."

"¿Que?" -What?-

"Can't really explain right now, but I think he did" She reached the control panel and began scanning for the button to open the cells. After double checking on cameras where the two were she pushed the button and started running for the entrance. She barely registered she ran past Wyoming in the halls, but she didn't stop.

She got out about the same time the others got out of the portal. She was met with a rather positive response,

"Beck!"

"Are you okay?"

"How'd you get away?"

And so on. She blew off the questions, seeking out one specific sim-soldier. She looked the Red leader in his visor once she was sure he was listening she spoke right at him

"Please for the love of everything in this timeframe, tell me you didn't put a bomb in the cobalt robot." He muttered an answer about "only ten megaton" Beck ran a hand through her hair with a sigh.

"Okay, I'm going to take a wild guess, Caboose activated it, didn't he-"

"I really really like buttons,"

"I know you do, sweetie" She then noticed the black armored figure who was standing a ways away from the rest of the Blood Gulch crew. She quickly insisted she was fine to the maroon soldier, who had continued to try and find out what had happened to her, and went over to the other female in the group. 'First things first. She should know me right?"

"Hey Tex, so how much do you know?"

"I was told you're missing some memories, and had an aggressive AI in your helmet. And that you were an complete cockbite and decided that helmets were overrated. Last time I checked, you're not gonna come back as a ghost of you kick it."

"Well I don't exactly enjoy the idea of being possessed either, Omega's a bit of a dick, you of all people should know. But that's not what I meant, I was talking about," She waved her free hand around to try and explain, "Just your future in general I guess, I know I'd let something slip at some point"

"This isn't the place to talk, too many..." Beck's shoulder was grabbed and she was spun around. She saw a pink helmet staring back at her, a bit too close for comfort.

"None of these colors look nice together, please switch back" He was wearing her orange and blue armor, visibly distressed by Beck's color choices, the pink helmet clearly not helping. She tried hard to not laugh.

"Sorry about that," They quickly began switching bits of the armor, the others gathered around, looking towards Beck for some idea of what to do next,

"Ha, so it's pretty easy to get you out of your armor then, I'll keep it in mind-"

"That if you want in my pants, you now know you literally can if needed. Grif and Church should be finding their way out here any minute now, and you all are going to find out how to disarm that bomb. We might be getting a visit from another freelancer, who was working for Domalley-" Tex cut her off

"Seriously, Domalley, you're going with that?"

"It works, okay? Anyways, he was working for Domalley at this point last time, but he might be friendly? Just don't shoot him, but don't trust him either, if he ends up being an ass, fire away, I guess? Though I am going to ask you try to not kill him, if at all possible" 'Now you're just rambling'

She'd gotten a few head tilts at the "Don't kill him part", but no one asked anything about it because at that moment the two missing members ran out of Red base.

"Sweet, sweet freedom, I'd kiss the ground if I wasn't wearing a helme- Holy shit Beck, is that Lopez's head?" 'Grif, the ever subtle'

"Por último, gracias por notarlo"-Finally, thanks for noticing-

"Yeah, it is. Hey Church, strange question, did you start ticking recently?"

"Um, actually yeah, what's with that?"

"You've got a bomb inside of you-"

"Son of a bitch, get it out then!" Sarge didn't help the blue leaders panic with his next words,

"Stop fussing, it probably'll turn off with a bit of fiddling" Beck could tell this might get a bit chaotic so she handed Lopez gently to Tex, giving her a look of "Don't drop him".

"No way am I letting you get anywhere close to me, you probably put it there in the first place"

"Technically yes-"

"There is no technically, you either did or you-" A gunshot went off between the two, either a warning shot, or the person had really bad aim. Tex figured it out first.

"Sniper!" They all scrambled behind large rock, crates and vehicles, Beck ended up behind a rock with Tex and Lopez. A voice carried over out of the base.

"As I was saying, long time, no see, my friend." Tex turned her head and shot a look at Beck. She hissed a whisper out,

"Why didn't you tell me it was Wyoming?"


	7. Chapter 7

(Happy weekend, I was able to finish up another chapter ahead of schedule, yay!

I don't own Red versus Blue or Halo. )

"Why didn't you tell me it was Wyoming?"

"You didn't ask! I was a little rushed, I was expecting Church to go boom at any minute, not the time to worry about things I can't remember and get all worked up about it. Is it important?"

"Just reinforce the "no killing" rule, and try to stay out of his way," The accented voice spoke loudly again.

"Now now, come on out Beck. I'm not going to shoot you, but I can't say I won't shoot your friends." She flinched and snuck a glance over at Tex, who knew her train of though immediately,

"Don't even think about it, kid." 'Fine, I won't do that just yet.' Beck yelled back at the entrance to red base,

"What do you want?"

"For you to come with me, you need to have a little talk with O'malley. Shouldn't be too long." She dropped her voice again,

"You guys could organize a rescue, couldn't you?" Another voice intervened before she got a response,

"Don't do it Beck! It's probably a trap!" 'Simmons'

"No duh dumbass, of course it's a trap" 'Grif' she heard a bang and the bullet hitting the rock to her left, shutting up the two's bickering.

"I'd hurry up if I were you Beck, the rest are expendable." 'Damn that mustached asshole, no way am I just letting him shoot them' She gave Tex a quick "Sorry" face and ran out from behind the rock before she could be stopped.

This was met with several curses and at least one "Beck no, you fucking idiot".

She put her hands above her head and walked towards the entrance to red base. She gave the man holding the sniper rifle a look of contempt,

"If you kill them I will kill you, keep that in mind"

"Yes, yes, I'm getting paid to bring you, not slaughter a pack of idiots. Now, if you'll get moving," Beck wasn't as angry as she could've been, it was mostly show. 'He didn't actually kill any of them, despite have been able too easily. That counts for something, right?' She was marched down the halls and out the other entrance. She got nervous at the quiet,

"You know, if you'd wanted to talk to me you could've just dropped by after we disarmed the bomb. Maybe I would've been able to bake something for the occasion, we could talk about my missing year or years over a plate of cookies." She trailed off when she didn't get a response, recognizing the knot in her stomach as the beginnings of anxiety.

'Of course he's not responding idiot, you started rambling about making cookies for the guy kidnapping you. People don't do that-'

"Sorry, perhaps later" Beck recognized and odd tone in his voice, she couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but she'd guess it was around somber.

They continued crossing the other snowy field in silence, Beck had already though up many ways to get away from Wyoming, but they either involved his death or hers. She decided to wait for a better opportunity.

They entered the Blue base and Beck sighed deeply as she knew the room she was headed for. Once back at the room she'd woken up with, Beck gathered as much false cheer as she could muster and directed it to the purple figure waiting for her.

"Why, hello Doc, how are you today?"

"Actually, I'm a little sore, to be honest. You've kicked me twice today"

"Very sorry about that, if there was any way to hit O'malley without hitting you, I'd use it." Domalley's body language changed suddenly, and he marched over and roughly guided Beck by the shoulder into one of the chairs. He nodded at the freelancer, and Beck caught the quiet sigh as the man set to tying her to the chair with a length of rope.

"I should break your legs for running off, but that would ruin my plans. Perhaps I'll just break this idiot's legs once I'm done with them to make up for it." Beck felt a pang of concern in her stomach. It registered on her face, she knew it did. 'If you keep showing your weakness, he's going to act on it you emotionally attached idiot'. He didn't react immediately to her flinch, but she knew he'd registered it.

Wyoming slipped the end of the rope and something else into her hand. She held onto the rope. 'He didn't actually tie it', she realized, 'Just wrapped it around a bunch. Is he on my side?' He stood back up,

"Now, shall we discuss payment?" The two, three if counting Doc and O'malley separately, started to walk towards the door still off it's hinges.

"Actually, I have another job for you" They had wedged the door closed behind them. Beck passed the other object given to her into the other hand and brought it around front of the rather loosely hanging ropes.

It was a neon orange and purple bracelet with a small note attached that said "Jellybeans". 'What the fuck is this?' She recognized the colors as those of the Trust AI, but the word wasn't making any sense. 'Why would he put that there, it's not a grocery list, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure jellybeans don't show up in RvB. Maybe old me told him to-oooohhh'

She remembered the personal significance of the word. When she was 13, Beck had gained interest in time loops and alternate realities. She'd been so invested in the fictional possibilities, that she'd made a codeword, so that if any of her friends ever got stuck in a timeloop, they'd be able to prove it right away in the next go-round. And there, on the brightly colored string was a note containing the answer to the question she'd planned to ask. "Why should I trust you?" "Jellybeans"

Beck was impressed. She wasn't sure who she was impressed by, be it Wyoming, herself, or her past self, just that she was impressed in general. She moved her arm back, she could hear talking heading towards the door. 'I'll have to wait for my moment a bit later then'. Only one of the two that had left entered again. Domalley grabbed a chair and pulled it up in front of Beck. She tried to pull on a nonchalant face.

"I'm guessing this is an interrogation? You'd be really good at the Good Cop Bad Cop routine. I'll probably tell you most of the answer, but don't expect details."

"The general idea will do for now, I need to know what specifics I'll need to get out of you first" Beck would almost say that the way he said that made her on edge, like there was malicious intent, but everything he said had malicious intent.

"Tell me what happens to Freelancer."

"They tore each other apart, mis-communication and secrets. Last known living freelancer then crash landed on a jungle planet during a civil war and was captured by the federal army, while the group they were with joined the rebels. The rest were either killed before then, or never brought up in the series."

"What about me?"

"You're far out of the picture at this point, merged into an AI collection mess, then taken out by an EMP. That was season 6, I'm talking 12."

"What was collecting us?"

"Freelancer driven crazy by their AI, wanted to be whole, so killing Freelancers and taking AI seemed to be the easiest way to do so. Failed catastrophically."

"Which one of my stupid siblings was it?"

"And we're out of time for questions, next topic" She could feel the glare. Doc surprised her by speaking up,

"You seem a bit too casual talking about this. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just a little odd, I guess"

"Well that's because I'm 98% sure I've managed to change a lot of things I'm telling about."

"What about that Wyoming guy, what happens to him?"

"He starts doing timeloops and someone catches on and kills him to stop it. It should be added that he was threatening this person's kid, and had killed the persons friends in various timeloops. All timetravel clones were then killed."

"He has the Time modification?"

"I don't know if he has it right now, because things get temporally confusing, but he gets it at some point." There was a bit of quiet,

"Would you know the location of the Alpha?"

"The more important question: Will I tell you? No."

"If you want the last moments of your allies' lives to be painful-" Gunshots rang out. Wyoming pried the door open enough to slip back in, out of the gunfire.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't able to grab one of them, and we've got some company."

"Nevermind, put your helmet on her, this is taking too long, I'll take what I need directly. If she knows what's good for the idiots, she'll cooperate." The Freelancer begrudgingly complied, and took off his helmet staring to head toward her. 'Wow, he looks tired'

When he got close enough in front of her Beck quickly lifted her legs up, put them on his chestplate and pushed out as hard as she could, knocking him backwards. She let go of the rope and unwound it quickly. She threw the chair at Domalley, they ran out of the way and Beck held tight to the rope, waiting for him to make the next move. He ran right at her and she dropped at the last minute, kicking his legs out, making him fall.

She took this opportunity to plant a knee on his back and catch his hands in the most tangled knot she could manage in the short time she had, then made a run for the door, all without loosing the bracelet she'd intertwined around her fingers.

Beck opened the door and was almost shot. She closed it behind her, getting a glimpse of Domalley working to get up.

"Hey! Watch where you're pointing that thing, someone could get hurt"

"What did he want?"

"Domalley? Oh you know, possession, information, a variety of things. I only told him very vague details about things I've either prevented or am going to prevent." She saw Church was standing apart from the rest of the group.

"Please tell me you disabled the bomb" The cyborg answered her,

"We couldn't, apparently someone tried to tamper with it when we were building it, so the failsafe locked on." Beck sighed, 'Time shenanigans, probably'

"Are we going to die?" The pink soldier stage whispered this to Beck,

"No, there's just gonna be some, complications"

"Damn it" The red leader lowered his shotgun from the position he'd put it when Donut asked his question, pointed at Grif's head.

"Wait were you about to fucking shoot me?" Beck stepped between the two.

"He wants you to die before him, you should know this by now. And please refrain from shooting teammates, even if they are subordinates." She was met with angry grumbling.

"But if someone were to accidentally shoot themselves in the back, no one would be mad, right?" 'Caboose better not kill me, or I am haunting his ass, I don't care how "cute" he acts.'

"Caboose, buddy, how about everyone tries really hard to not get killed, if we all try really hard, no one should get hurt." Church snorted,

"Yeah, good luck with that. Also, I think the timer's about to hit zero, if anyone fucking cares." The door was then slammed completely off it's frame, Domalley's fists were tightly clenched, and Beck could see Wyoming putting his helmet back on in the background. Tucker pushed Beck behind him.

"You're not getting away that easy, muhaha" He pulled a remote off his armor and hit a button. A door down the hall slammed open and a headless body walked towards them.

"Así que ahí es donde mi cuerpo se fue."-So that's where my body went- Lopez spoke from Tex's arms, they'd both been standing to the side, watching the bickering go down.

The purple man pushed another button and the weather machine started up, shooting lightning wildly in the hallway. The Reds and Blues ducked down as to not be a target. Beck covered her head with her arms when one bolt shot over them and hit Church, the only person still standing.

She heard a loud boom, ringing, and everything went white. She recognized the pushing that went with the light, same thing she'd experienced before being dropped in Blood Gulch, but this time she could barely make out colored blurs moving along with her. Things went black for her before they came to a stop.


	8. Chapter 8

(In this one, the flashbacks start. I'm not too sure the consistency with them, whether they'll be one flashback per current time, or if I'll have some just one or the other. It'll probably be an awkward mix of both, I'll put the timeframe up when it switches around. There's going to be a bit of blood and violence in this one, and it's a bit longer, just a heads up.

I do not own Red versus Blue or Halo.)

Unsurprisingly, Beck woke up with a killer headache. 'Okay, next time, I don't care if I'm brainwashed by 50 AI, I'm gonna wear the fucking helmet. I'm not sure how lucky I can be.' Beck moved her hand slightly, trying to find out where she was. 'I'm pretty sure that's dirt' She started to listen for any more clues as to who was there, however,

"Oh, hey guys! I think she's waking up" 'Yup, that's Donut' She opened her eyes to see the sim-soldier's helmeted head. She then squinted at the brightness of the sky and sat up. 'Right, this place. How'd this play out again?'

"Hey there, am I the last up?"

"Yup! Tucker woke up about ten minutes ago"

"Cool, you have an idea of what's going on?"

"I think we figured it out! I made a play to help demonstrate what we think happened,"

"That the present was blown up? Let's just operate under the idea that's what happened,"

"Aw, I worked really hard on it"

The light red soldier looked crestfallen, and Beck felt a bit bad.

"Fine, maybe you can show me later,-"

"Ooooooooh no. No fucking way are you gonna worm out of this, they made me watch it, you have to watch it too" The other soldiers had made their way to where Beck was sitting,

"Well, Tucker, I already know what happened, you just had to have it explained to you, it's your own fault"

"What for not being a universe jumping weirdo?"

"Yes," Beck took in where they were, the abandoned and trashed base, she could see the jeep under repair in the distance.

"So what do we have?" She was curious to see what they'd done when left to mostly their own devices. Sarge answered,

"We raided the old base and found some MREs. We're working on fixing that broken car, it only seats three though. And we found- " Simmons cut him off

"No, sir, I think that's it actually" Beck squinted at him slightly, his voice had gotten higher, like it did when he lied. 'What did they find? Time to be a sneaky little bastard'

"Really, are you sure that's it? I could've sworn there was more" Grif laughed,

"Yeah, nice try, we're not that dumb-" Thankfully Caboose was that dumb,

"How did she know we found her helmet"

"She didn't, but now she does, great going." Beck scrambled to her feet to try and find it, 'I can get some answers then make the AI log off, no harm, no foul- Woah, that didn't help my headache' She stumbled as she tried to inspect the makeshift base.

"Are you okay?" She shot a glare at the maroon soldier,

"I'll be fine, I can avoid this in the future if you'll be so kind as to give me my fucking helmet." 'Brainwashing be damned, I'll keep the radio off anyways' Her glare redirected to Sarge when he started talking,

"What about that AI fella, isn't he the one who made his guy go crazy?" This was the problem that's been passing through the back of her mind for the days she'd been there. She'd come up with what she thought to be her best bet.

"I'm pretty sure I can make him relocate into a storage unit, Delta's done it before, and while in the unit he was still able to talk, but it wasn't a direct connection. Then I'll tell him to log off after asking a few simple questions,"

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't log off?"

"Then I'll detach the storage unit and throw him into the fucking ocean." The red leader started muttering, weighing his options,

"I don't like it, but I'll allow it. However, you need to be watched by someone I trust in case he starts trying to take over your mind. Simmons"

"Me, sir?"

"You and Grif watch her, I'd have Lopez do it, but he's not here, so you're the next best thing"

"Close enough, I'll go get the helmet." The crowd dissipated, leaving only Grif standing next to her.

"So, kidnapped by O'malley, how'd that go?"

"Not as bad as I thought it would be, almost escaped once during the first time, I got lost in the base. Second try was definitely the better one, got Lopez and got out. How was the rescue attempt?"

"Eh, it was okay. Mostly a bunch of talk before we finally decided that following the footprints might help... I got to talk to Tex for a bit,"

"Really? What'd you talk about?"

"Asked her about your hair and tats. She said you'd gotten them on shore leave." A bit of relief washed over her, while she hadn't been actively worrying about it, that issue had still been bugging her

"Shore leave, so that would insinuate I did Actual Work while there. Thanks man, I owe you one"

"Hey, as long as you don't flip out again, we're good." Simmons came back with the helmet. Beck took a deep breath.

"I'll try not to. Here goes nothing." She put it on.

Once the helmet and armor reconnected, it light up and Sigma's buzzing kicked back in, she didn't let it stay for long. 'Get into storage now, get out of the helmet, get out of my head' 'What makes you so sure that I am capable of-' She tired drowning him out with the RWBY theme song, showing she wasn't listening until he was out of her head.

'rather childish tactic-' 'WELCOME TO A WORLD OF BLOODY EVOLUTION. IN TIME-' She could feel him sigh 'Complying' She almost started cheering when she felt the buzzing drain out of her head. She began hearing his voice through the speakers instead of inside her mind.

"Tell me why you found that necessary" Through the visor she saw the two reds take a step back at the voice. Beck nodded her head to the side, asking them to give her a bit of privacy, they stepped backwards a bit more.

"I don't want you in my head, it was either that or throwing the helmet again, and I have questions"

"I was the one who convinced Freelancer of your use after they deemed you too large a liability. Some gratitude would be appreciated"

"Thanks for that, then. What'd I find out that made them want to kill me?"

"How to return home." She'd never thought of that, the possibility of going back home hadn't really concerned her until then.

"Do you know how-"

"I believe you've asked a question, now it is my turn, What occurred between Agent Maine and myself?" Beck held back her anger and answered as calmly as she could.

"You were given to Maine because he'd gotten his throat shot out during a fight and could no longer talk. You then overtook his mind and used him as a puppet to gather the other fragments, killing any Freelancer that got in your way. It was a useless quest really, you went for meta-stability the wrong way, your method just resulted in the destruction of your brothers and the Alpha via EMP."

"You know where the Alpha is? Tell me." A tingling began to grow on the back of her neck, and panic began to rise inside of her

"Return to the storage unit. That's an order" The feeling vanished and the fiery holographic figure of a man appeared in front of her face, startling her quite badly.

"I suggest you tell me the location of the Alpha, Miss Beck-"

"Sigma log off" The holograph faded and she no longer heard the voice. 'Did I...' She broke out into a smile, 'I did!'

"Um, Beck did it work?" She laughed in relief and threw her arms around Simmons, the man letting out a confused noise at the spontaneous act of joy.

"Yes! Did you see that? I'm not a murderous puppet and I got a reason for missing my memories!" She then ran over and began hugging the orange soldier.

"This is great, I could go home! It's possible!" 'Oh man, this is fucking silly but I'm just so glad,' A voice shouted from across the base,

"Hey Beck if you're giving out hugs, don't forget about me!"

"You don't even know why I'm happy, you jerk!" She began mentally organizing her next to-do-list, 'Find out how to get home, figure out more about the missing time, gather the gang, and continue saving everyone's asses'

It was a good plan.

* * *

**Years ago... Location Unknown**

Beck didn't like the falling sensation, her stomach jumped around as she fell for at least a minute. Thankfully, it was starting to slow down, though it didn't stifle the panic she was feeling. The slowing made time for her to prepare for whatever it was on the other side of this fall.

She got enough sense to try and grab a defensive object from her bag. She got a pen. It would help, she could make a tighter fist around it, and she could shove the point into an eye if needed, but she'd been hoping to grab her pocketknife. Before she could lament her weapon choice she was shocked with sudden cold and freefalling. She only fell a foot or two, but combined with the cold it was enough to knock the wind out of her for a minute.

Long enough to hear the voice around the corner.

"-Jenkins gets my terminal duty, and I get to freeze my ass off out here with..." Beck quickly scanned where the was, a walkway, coated in part with ice, 'It couldn't be, could it?'

**Bjorndal Cryogenics Research Facility, Arctic Ocean**

She scrambled to her feet just as a soldier tentatively stuck his head around the corner.

"Murphy-? You're not Murphy, how'd you get here?" Beck froze, a deer in headlights. This guy finally decided she had to be a hostile, who else would show up in the middle of the night on a research center in the middle of the ocean. He scrambled for his gun, Beck unfroze herself and started attacking, trying to remember the defense class she'd just gotten out of.

'Of course, they never covered Halo armor in there.' It was mostly her knocking the guy's arm away from his gun, her hand was going to be pretty messed up after this was over. She kicked him backwards and got a clear shot for the visor of his helmet, so she took it. The point of the pen smashed down on it and the ink exploded over the reinforced glass.

Beck let go of the pen with great pain and held her right hand nearer to her body. The soldier was trying to wipe it off, which only smeared it around, when a purple figure ran past, snatching the guy's gun and flipping him over the edge before turning on her.

"And just who in the hell are you?" Beck's breath caught in her throat, she couldn't talk, she was even having trouble moving, her left hand gripping the strap of her bag. Her shoulder was grabbed and she was pulled close and the gun was placed under her chin

"I said, who the fuck are you?" There were muffled words coming from the helmet, a male voice as opposed to the female one threatening her. One word squeaked out of the brunette's throat, one of the only ones processing through her brain,

"South?" The man on the other side of the com went quiet, South just cursed softly, then loudly,

"I don't have time for this shit, kid," She truned her head away from Beck, clearly talking to the person on the radio, words a bit too mumbled to make out. The gun was pulled away and set in Beck's good hand.

"Don't get killed, and we'll talk after the objective's complete. North, you're on babysitting duty." An earpiece was tossed at her, Beck put it in. Before the purple figure could run off to collect the information she needed, Beck mustered up some strength and said one more thing,

"Set your goddamn trackers." She was pleased with the huff she heard through the radio. The other spoke to her,

"Well you're something aren't you, what's your name, kid?"

"I-I'm Beck." 'It's freezing out here, capris and a workout top aren't helping'

"Nice to meet you" He started talking to South on the other line. Beck scanned the skyline, looking for the smokestack the sniper was perched on. She found it and looked right at it for as long as she'd thought it would take him to notice. Then more voices began walking down the hall. North picked them up on thermal,

"You okay to take them, Beck?"

"This is literally the first time I've touched a gun, and my dominant hand is screwed," He let out a chuckle,

"I'll be there in a moment, try to stay out of sight." She pressed herself as close to the wall as she dared. The voices of the two guards came closer and an alarm started blaring.

"I don't think she set her trackers."

"No, she didn't,"

The guards had ran back to the terminal to find out what was going on, then ran out on to the walkway, one of them noticed Beck.

"Hey, you, freez-" A tall dark purple figure landed and smashed their heads together before either could shoot.

"Alright then, let's get you outta here, kid" Beck looked at the bodies then at the man dwarfing her

"You seemed to enjoy that a bit much" He shrugged his shoulders and scooped her up. Beck started as she wasn't expecting that and the metal armor was cold against her bare arms. She used her left hand to lift up her bag by it's strap and place it in her lap.

"We're gonna make a run for it, extraction should be here soon." Beck squeaked out an affirmative and they took off. She was amazed they didn't get shot as the soldier ran, jumped and ducked, firing with one hand. It was an impressive show of skill.

About halfway there, they met up with his sister, she began providing cover fire while they ran out onto the helipad. Once out there, Beck was set down on her feet and she gripped the gun she'd been given with her left hand, hoping it would somehow download knowledge of how to shoot and aim a gun into her body. It didn't

Soldiers surrounded them on the walkways above them. Beck glanced over to the two purple soldiers, they were talking to each other over their radios. She would fully admit to anyone who asked her that she was scared, she was terrified.

'I'm not even supposed to be here, whose idea was this. And what do I do if I make it out of here, just tell the twins "Hi, you're from the internet and you die" That'll make the scary-ass military organization just love me, right?' The insurrectionist at the gun started talking,

"Attention assholes, you are surrounded," he continued on with a "surrender or die" speech, North told Beck to get behind him through the radio. She didn't argue. Suddenly the soldiers started flying everywhere, being hit by a hard-to-see enemy.

"Who the hell is that?" Beck knew the answer to South's question,

"Carolina" If there'd been a moment's rest, Beck knew she would have been questioned about her knowledge, but as they were, the fighting took priority. Beck just tried to stay out of the way of their bullets.

"So who's your friend?" The aqua soldier shot above the civilian's head.

"Beck, she dropped in on us while we were working" He took out a soldier about to shoot their leader,

"Doesn't seem like much of a soldier" She pulled Beck out of a bullet's path, it barely scraping by her forehead.

"She's not, I've got a feeling she's not from around here either"

The insurrectionist had gotten back to the gun, Beck noticed first,

"Carolina, the gunner!" Instantly the seafoam head snapped to the gunner and she shot the grappling hook at it, pulling it down to aim at the supports. 'Wait, wasn't he supposed to shoot North first? Did I just-' Beck's left shoulder exploded with pain, blood started dripping down the front of her shirt.

"Son of a bi..." Two more shots hit in her torso. 'That's not very nice...' She felt herself being picked up by one of the three Freelancers, she hadn't noticed she'd fallen. There was more talking she couldn't make out, then they plunged backwards over the side.

The fall was short lived as they landed on the transport ship awaiting them. She was carried down the ladder and locked into a seat. Mild panic brought her back to her senses, out of the shock from being shot. Carolina had moved to the front and both Dakotas were in the back with her.

"Ships're gonna follow us... Gonna have missiles." South was the one who'd heard it and ran to the door to check for and pursuers, she gave a quick glance to Beck and shouted up to the front.

"We've got company" Beck felt the maneuvers 479er began, trying to throw them off their trail. She wiped a bit of blood out of her eyes and looked down to where she was hurt 'That's a lot of blood' She began fading in and out with every twist of the plane.

* * *

Next time she could get coherent thoughts together Beck saw North in front of her, a smear of blood on his helmetless face.

"You knew about the missiles, is there any way to stop them?" Behind him South was strapped into a seat, she wasn't moving.

"Dome shield, but o-only .1 percent chance..." It was hard to get words out, she started drifting again.

* * *

The last time she came to her senses before going out completely, she was being put on a stretcher and wheeled out of there. Carolina was walking next to her and saw her eyes open.

"Just who the hell are you, kid?"

"I just want... to help" Carolina dropped back and a medical officer started talking to her. Beck caught a glimpse of the twins, each moving alongside a group of doctors. She looked at the ones above her and one of them proceeded to shoot something into her arm and everything went dark.


	9. Chapter 9

(We've almost reached the end of what I've prewritten! I'll try and keep up though. The flashback is a bit long, but it was too short when I cut it at the line, so yay, longer flashback. Not tooooooo much action in this one, just moving things along.

I do not own Halo or Red versus Blue.)

**Present day**

Sarge told Beck it would be a little longer before the car was in driveable condition. She tried to help, but her offer was declined. Something about "Too many cooks in the garage spoils the motor oil", she wasn't quite sure why Donut was being the preferred mechanical assistant over her. So she was stuck standing around with the others nearby.

"We don't need new rims, Grif"

"Oh, come on, if we all kick in we could get some spinners, some kickass subs, hydraulics!"

"I'm in"

"Tucker, the only reason you like the idea is because you'd try to pick up chicks. I'm probably the only chick for miles, and I'll let you know, even with a sweet ride, I won't fall for it."

"Aw, what if I had a tank though?"

"I'd probably ditch you and take the tank for myself." Sarge popped up,

"Stop yer gossiping, start the engine" Beck remembered something and quickly spoke up

"Don't touch anything Donut" They started the engine and the whole car roared to life.

"Hey! we did it! now we wait for Tex's coordinates."

"Coordinates to what?"

"Domalley's base, at least I think so anyways. Things may have changed, start up the radio, let's see what's transmitting."

They turned it in and almost instantly part of the message came through

"-ex calling for anyone from Blood Gulch outpost-"

"Hey! Dumb luck's the best thing we've got" Beck cut her cheering short and they listened intently for the coordinates that were then rattled off. The message looped and they turned it off.

"Okay men, and Beck, we move out of here in an hour"It ended up being more like two hours. Caboose had gotten lost in the base so they'd had to go find him. Then they still had to pack up everything they'd found. Then came the seating,

"No way."

"Come on, Tucker. It could be worse."

"I'd rather walk, or better yet, you could sit on my lap"

"Nah, I'm already with Donut in the back, we were gonna talk about his ideas for improving Red base." 'We weren't, but we are now'

After quite a lot of arguing and many different arrangements, they ended up with Beck, as the smallest, in the driverseat with Grif, Tucker very reluctantly on the taller maroons soldier's lap, Caboose and Donut in the back seat and Sarge sitting on the side with the supplies.

Once they actually got going, they made good time. They began bickering shortly after they took off, arguing over anything they could.

"That's not even a lame superpower," Beck spoke through the others, each having their own conversations "see, how about if you had invincibility, but only from papercuts and stubbing your toes Grif shook his head,

"Still would be invincibility though, it'd stop a lot of minor inconveniences."

"Yeah, but that's all, it barely counts as a power, there's so many better ones out there"

"Well if you're comparing it to others, there's still worse- Wait I think that's Tex" They pulled up and everyone got out, tired of being crammed in a too small vehicle. She walked up to them, Beck was pleased to note Lopez's head sitting to the side.

"Well it sure took you idiots long enough"

"Hey," Beck defended "I'd say we did pretty good for cramming seven people into a three person car. Did you make a bomb?"

"Yeah, scoped the place out too. He got a grunt from somewhere, he's manning one of the turrets, but we'll have to get past the windmill first," Tex started explaining the strategy with the Reds and Blues. Beck went to check on Lopez.

"Hey, how's being a head treating you?"

"Tengo que construir una bomba, que fue muy divertido." -I got to build a bomb, that was fun.-

"I'm pretty sure he's a jerk, but good job. Tex can't lift it right?"

"Sí, es por eso que pidió a los idiotas en lugar de sólo a ti. Aunque hubieras traído ellos de todos modos." -Yes, that's why she asked for the idiots instead of just you. Although you would have brought them anyways.-

"Yeah, I would've. Mostly because they can go back to Blood Gulch from here, and I'm pretty sure there's a prophecy to be fulfilled here"

"En realidad no viajar en el tiempo ¿verdad?" -We didn't actually travel in time, right?-

"Eh, jury's still out, we definitely didn't travel one thousand years, due to outside forces not being affected like we were. Although there is a lot of time travel bullshit about to go down. I say "about to" and "a lot", but those are all relative." The Reds and Blues starting calling her over so she picked up Lopez and headed on over.

"So are we moving out?" They exchanged glances,

"Well," Simmons started "We were think you'd sit this one out"

"What? No way!"

"You've already got one A.I. locked away in there, I don't want to give him any ideas" Tex's voice sounded final. 'She has a point' 'But they'll get shot!' 'They have survived this far without me, I can just jump right in if anything goes wrong' She stopped arguing with herself,

"I'll stay, but if anything goes wrong-"

"Hey, we'll be fine!" She looked at the orange soldier,

"You do know you've probably doomed yourself by saying that"

"The thought crossed my mind" She sighed and sat down on a rock while Caboose tried to pick up the bomb. 'Better not get hurt, assholes'

* * *

**Years ago**

While she was sleeping Beck dreamed of going to the beach. She'd packed a picnic basket and set up the umbrella. She waded out into the water, shouting across it to her friends already swimming. Then one misstep and she started sinking. Her arms grew heavy and she sunk away from the gold sunlight up ahead. The drowning wasn't as noticeable as she'd thought, it felt more like falling asleep quickly, but with thicker air. She knew she was awake when breathing was easier.

The first thing Beck noticed was the smell of some odd kind of disinfectant followed by the light soreness that masked her entire body. Her head was aching. She tried to gather what she could about the room she was in, possibly hospital by the smell and the bed she was in, but there was an odd background noise that, when paired with the headache, was throwing her off. A thrumming that seemed to encompass the room.

'It feels like I got shot...' 'Wait.' She began remembering what had happened, and began toying with the idea it wasn't just a weird dream, a continuation of the beach one, perhaps. 'One way to find out'. She opened her eyes and the room wasn't the bright hospital white she'd been bracing her aching head for, but rather the med bay of a familiar ship. 'Son of a-'.

**M.O.I.**

Beck looked around to see if anyone else was in there, and her eyes made contact with a silver visor that was standing near the exit, 'Hey, it's Mysterious Blue Guy, I know him'. Florida noticed the girl was awake and left the room. Beck took this as an opportunity to check herself over. She was surprised to see the spots she'd been shot were left unbandaged and were healed for the most part, just a raised light red scar left. 'Either I've been here for quite a while or healing technology is incredible. I'll go with the latter.'

She decided to focus on the more important things for the time being. 'But if I'm here, they'll end up knowing that I know stuff. And then they'll realize I know Too Much about stuff. And then they'll probably flush me out an airlock. I guess I could lie about how much I know, just say I've only seen bits and pieces.' This was a headache she really didn't want to deal with, but it seemed a necessary evil.

'Well they don't know how much I know, and there's really nothing to prove what- Wait where's my bag?' After one moment of panic, she located it next to the bed she was in. She scooped it up and dug around, checking her belongings and looking for something in particular. Beck pulled out the ipod touch and quickly scrolled through all her music. Specifically all her RVB related music.

'Spoilery, spoilery, spoilery name, how about I just lock this then.' She made a point of not thinking about the fact that the high-tech military organisation from the future could probably hack her now-ancient piece of technology. She changed the password, just in case.

The doors opened again and in stepped one of the many people on this ship she was terrified of, The Councilor. She tensed up.

"Hello, miss Beck, is it?" She shakily nodded her head, he continued "How are you feeling?" He was holding a digital notepad of sorts.

"A- a little sore an-and very, very confused."

"That's natural. Could you please tell me your date of birth."

"July 14 1996." He paused in his recording of her reactions.

"I'd prefer if you were honest with me," Her heart jumped in her chest. 'Of course he wouldn't believe that, idiot'

"I- I am being honest, I was born 1996, then in 2007, I was 11, I moved from Arizona to Maryland, and then yesterday was June 2nd, 2014" His attention went back down to the pad.

"Interesting, and could you, in your own words describe what happened while on the oil platform" She was having trouble forming the words to tell the story, so she took a few deep breaths before explaining as best she could with her frazzled mind.

"I was just going to my next class, when I started falling, and then, when I landed, it was cold. And I was scared. And then I saw a guard and one of the soldiers, South, came up to me. And I was scared, and I didn't know what to do. So I went along with things, and then the other soldier showed up and we got out of there. But I'd gotten shot." She was just babbling at this point, Beck was never very good with authority figures in general, and the fact they shouldn't exist wasn't helping out.

"...I see, and, is it true that you recognized the Agents and were able to predict several instances?" She really wanted to just curl up and disappear. She was able to resist doing this by instead tensing every part of her body.

"Miss Beck? Would you like me to rephrase the question?" She made herself as small as possible.

"I-I just want to help"

"It would help if you answered the questions. Did you, or did you not have prior knowledge-" The door opened and another figure entered. Beck'd say she was saved by the bell, if it hadn't been the person on the ship she was most scared of. The Director.

"Video recording of the mission reveals she indeed recognized the Agents. The question you should be asking her is how she knew them." 'Okay, yeah, no fuck this. I want out. Abort. Abort.' Beck still couldn't organize her ideas, she was still trying to find a way to explain that would have the least bad reactions.

"So miss Beck, how did you know them." She made one last attempt to calm down before she had to answer to the director of the scary-ass military organization.

"I'm... I'm not from around here, I think. This sho-shouldn't be real, all this, it's... it's just part of a series on the internet."

"Might I ask about the events that take place in this series."

"A-all this" she waved vaguely, gaining confidence and momentum, "Is just, well, backstory, really, elaborated on after the solidification of the universe which itself was based off a video game. The mission yesterday was the beginning of the season partially revolving around the past. I want to help. Things... Don't work out too well, in the end I mean." The Councilor continued typing on that pad of his, 'Probably writing "Totally fucking insane, avoid at all costs, kill off quietly" I wouldn't believe me either.'

She saw the two men exchange a glance, the Director gave a slight nod. Beck looked away from them, fiddling nervously with her fingers, her bracelets having gone missing along with her normal clothes, leaving her in clothes with the Freelancer logo on them. 'Yes, very interesting. More so than the people debating whether I should live or not. Oh hey, Flowers is back over at the corner,' The bespectacled man started talking again, his words carefully chosen, or at least sounding so, it might have just been the accent.

"Did you know that after you were shot, you were never taken into surgery." Beck snapped her head back to him, interest piqued, "In fact, the bullets had been expelled from the wound, and the wounds had already begun the healing process by the time you could receive medical attention. Our scientist scanned you, but have come no closer to figuring out what caused the increased regeneration. I now believe it is in direct connection to your... Displacement." She tried to maintain level eye contact with him as he continued, a million and one questions flying around in her head.

"Your story appears to line up with the information we've already gathered, Miss Beck. You say you want to help. Your superior knowledge coupled with this healing trick of yours will prove useful, you might even be able to make the leaderboard" He motioned through the window behind him 'Ah yes, that glowing piece of shit, only rips apart your team in three different ways' She noted South's lower place on the board, 'She's gonna be mad about that'

"Sir, might I suggest-"

"I know what I'm doing Councilor. Now while you're staying here you will be expected to follow orders and will have to undergo training to be able to assist out in the field, is that clear?" Beck hesitantly nodded 'Nothing better to do, I guess'

"Uh, yes sir?"

"Excellent, once the medical staff clear you, your training will begin. I'll let you decide how much of this you want to tell the Agents." The two left and Beck wondered what she'd just gotten herself into.

She noticed the blue Freelancer was still there, 'Standing guard perhaps? Make sure I'm not some spy come to kill them all?' She lifted her hand up in a greeting, he gave a friendly wave back. She pulled her craft bag out of her larger bag and began working on a new bracelet, dark purple and green.

* * *

After a while she had pulled out her ipod and listened to music while thinking over her situation and braiding the strings. Her right hand, though slightly sore, was uninjured. 'They could easily be lying about the healing thing, but what would that give them? An information source that would get way too cocky and get herself shot. Though, now I know, they could try and study it to see if they could integrate it into their soldiers. I do however know that the next thing that should be happening is CT, well Connie right now, gets back from a failed mission' The doors opened,

"Two four one ten, am I transm-" She paused the song and looked at who had shown up. North glanced at Florida, who did nothing to prevent or encourage his entrance with a familiar colored soldier in tow. Gray and yellow. Both were in full armor.

"Hey kid, how're you feeling?" Beck finished off the bracelet and stuffed it in her bag.

"Almost good as new, you?"

"I wasn't unconscious in medbay for half a day, so I'd say good." 'Half a day? Well, I did get shot,' "I brought a friend, hope that's alright" She struggled to keep a wide smile from her face as she looked at his friend. She looked back at the taller man,

"What if I told you I already knew him?"

"I'd ask how."

"Hey, wait- I've never met you?" She couldn't help a quick, giddy, nervous laugh, 'I have to tell them, it's the only way they'll believe me. Might as well have a bit of fun'

"Well I sure hope you haven't, I've only just gotten here," She held out her hand in a handshake, "Nice to meet you Wash, I'm Beck." He began letting out a few confused noises, North let out a small laugh.

"I did warn you there was something off about her"

"Are you some kind of spy?" 'Look at him, this organization is gonna fuck him over, and he doesn't even know it. Hopefully I can prevent any fucking over'

"If I was, do you really think I'd still be on this ship? It's a bit more complicated than that, and I'm having trouble thinking of a good way to explain it."

"Any explanation would probably be a good thing right now"

"Okay, fine, how's this. I know what's going to happen because this is all part of the tragic backstory that was set up for a series I watch. A series which is based off of a video game, might I add. Yesterday was the first point shown, chronologically speaking anyways." She slightly regretted her bluntness,

"And you're sure you didn't get a bullet to the brain?" She shot the twin a mild glare, he held his hands up "Okay, okay, I get it, how tragic are we talking here?" She flinched, remembering the first time North was shown; in the recovery one mini-series, dead before the episode started.

"That's not very reassuring" Wash noted, Beck gave him a look too.

"But, because I'm here, I can help right? At least half of it was from miscommunication and misunderstandings, and all the events can be changed."

"How're you so sure about that?"

"Wash, I'm pretty sure I'd remember if I made an appearance in the series, for one. And two, I've already started making some changes, however minor. You," She motioning at the taller one, "Were supposed to have gotten shot by that gunner on the platform, having pushed South out of the way. If I could change something "small" like that, I should be able to alter the bigger arcing plot." 'I hope so anyways, or I'm gonna have to call bullshit on this whole thing' It was quiet for a moment, Beck scanned their helmets, trying to get a read on them.

"Well," the older twin started "This was... Interesting."

"Sorry, sorry" Beck apologized "If I had a better way to break the news, I'd use it." She ran her fingers through her hair "And now I have to do this for, like, at least seven more people on this ship alone."

"Who's that?"Washington asked. Beck starting counting off on her fingers,

" C.T-I mean Connie, York, Carolina, South, Maine, Wyoming, and, ah, one who hasn't show up yet." 'Shit I need to discreetly look into all that AI stuff too, don't I? Fuck. I've got time though,' She saw them both try to slip a look at the leaderboard, she could feel their suspicion.

"Yes, I know. There's a reason the storyline focuses on you. Several, really, in it's own paradoxical way. There's two others mentioned, but one I'm too late to warn, the other just needs a quick warning. Any help with the other seven would be appreciated"

"I could try to explain it to them if you want, but I think this is something they'll have to hear for themselves." The purple one sounded like he wasn't sold on the idea.

"Just give them a warning it'll be trippy and send them my way, I guess." A doctor came in and the two agents dismissed themselves. Beck felt a pang of pity 'Those poor guys, I bet they didn't sign up to have their existence belittled like that' The doctor told her that she would be free to go the next morning. Beck thanked them, then started up on a new bracelet. Grey and yellow. She turned her music back on.

"-itting is anyone listening" At least she had someone on her side now.


	10. Chapter 10

(I'm going to try some PoV changes in this one! There's a lot more flashback than present day, but I just needed this short bit out of the way before I could continue on the big one. Also, sorry for the late-ness, I was away from any computer for a whole week and then I got smacked down with consecutive headaches, that was fun. But enough whining, I hope you enjoy!(Made a quick edit because I forgot Maine existed, whups. I may also re-write a bit of this because I'm not too happy with it)

I do not own Red versus Blue, Halo, or any other material that was not created for this story.)

**Present Day, Grif**

The moment Beck had walked out of earshot, presumably to talk to the Red team mechanic, Tex stopped describing the plan to them

"So do we all agree Beck's not going in"

"Wait, why?"Simmons asked "She's the one who knows what's going on, what if we need her help?"

"Right now, she has zero training in her head and I'd rather she not get ripped apart by bullets."

"But you'd rather we did?" pointed out Tucker

"You catch on quick."

"I won't stand for this,"Grif wasn't surprised when his CO went on to argue against the clearly logical point while somehow bypassing the fact the Freelancer didn't care if they were brutally slaughtered. "anyone under my command is skilled beyond belief. And she's held on this long right? Gotten away from that O'malley fella all by herself"

"Have you seen her fight? Right now most of her strategy is throwing shit or kicking people until she can run away."

"But when we first met her she managed to take me and Grif out, that counts for something" 'I'm not sure that's too much of an achievement'

"That's probably because she still had the AI in her head, and you guys are idiots. Which brings me to my next point. I don't know what she did to him to get Sigma out of her helmet, but I still wouldn't put it past him to try and pull something. Beck was terrified of him, and there's a fucking good reason for it too" Grif spoke up

"Yeah, we've already heard the horror story, his guy went nuts"

"Exactly, so the sooner we deal with O'malley, the sooner we can deal with Sigma. I know some guys who can take them off our hands." They turned back to the matter at hand and called Beck over.

"So are we moving out?" He was saved from speaking up when his teammate explained their silence instead.

"Well, we were thinking you'd sit this one out" Now that was wearing her helmet, it was harder to tell her emotions, but he was pretty fucking sure she disagreed with their decision.

"What? No way!"

"You've already got one AI locked away in there, I don't want to give him any ideas." Beck started moving her hands around in small motions, like she did when she was debating two options, he'd seen her do it before when they were trying to think up the worst possible superpower. She sighed,

"I'll stay, but if anything goes wrong-"

"Hey, we'll be fine" 'Probably just fucking doomed myself with that'

"You do know you've probably doomed yourself by saying that"

"The thought crossed my mind." They moved out, Caboose picking up the bomb because holy fuck that thing was heavy.

They were split into three teams, one to distract the gunner, one to take him out, the other to get the bomb inside. Guess which team his benevolent leader volunteered him for.

"Hurry up and shoot him already, what's taking so long?" He was yelling this while crouching behind a rock with Donut, occasionally returning fire. The shooting stopped. The teal soldier pulled his sword out of the minion's body.

"Ha! So much for leaving me behind, huh Tex"

"Dude, she's not even over here"

"Shut up, it was rhetorical" That's when the second team showed up

"Haha suck it minio- Hey, you stole my kill"

"Your fault for taking too long,"

"That's because Sarge though if we waited long enough, Grif would've been shot" An unhappy grumbling met this

"I knew we should've waited longer. Do you think if I shot him now, Beck would notice?" He was about to say how he was pretty sure one of the three other people standing would point it out to her when the other blue idiot came running over.

"I did not find an x. But I found Church! Quick, help me get him out of the computer" 'This'll be interesting, better than being shot anyways'

* * *

**Years ago, York**

Training had been hard that day, so the agent was relieved when lunch finally rolled around. He had grabbed a tray and saw North and Wash sitting next to the girl Carolina had told him about. All he knew was her name was Beck, and there was something up with her. He sat down at the table with them.

"Oh, um have you met Beck yet?"

"No, but I've heard she made quite the entrance." She shrugged and gave a small smile,

"Yeah, I'm still trying to work that out, York." She sure seemed a little off, she was saying things oddly, choosing her words carefully. A few moments passed and when the other three didn't pick up their conversation again, the two he did know made some lame excuse to leave.

York began glancing down at the girl who kept nervously looking at him, then when she didn't initiate any conversation, he went back to eating. She slid closer to him and held something out. He looked and it was an earbud. Those hadn't been used for quite a while, there were better ways of listening to your music, and he hadn't really seen a pair in such good condition.

"You, uh, wanna listen to some music?" She was holding an old music device in her other hand, 'Well someone's a collector'

"Sure, it's not like the conversation was really moving after half the guys left"

"Yeah, sorry, but I had something to tell you"

"Well then tell me" Beck rolled her eyes but he could see a hint of a smile, 'she warmed up to me quite quickly'

"Just listen to the damn music, it'll help break the ice. This is going to be a strange conversation" He finally put the earbud in, it felt odd, not like the earpieces on the headsets.

The young girl messed with the device and music came out. It was nice enough, he guessed. The drum bit at the beginning reminded him of the old style of music that was coming back in style as what "rebellious" kids listened to in some of the colonies, the guitar that picked up helped that thought. Then the lyrics started.

"Bitch in black, hard as stone. Need no friends, works alone." It continued on, following the old age rebellious theme going on. Nothing struck him as odd until it reached what was presumably the chorus.

"You can screw Neveda, mess with Maine, leave Hawaii in a puddle of pain. You can beat Virginia 'til she's down on the floor but if you Fuck with Tex, you'll be on your knees for sure. Motherfucker." The agent turned his head over to look at her, state names being used as people's names was a little too familiar. She was pointedly looking the other way, tapping her fingers on the table to the beat, the other earbud in her own ear. York listened a little more intently to the next lines, 'Texas, that name's reserved isn't it?'

"Advantage Texas; got that right, bet you boys sleep well tonight. Lick those wounds, nurse those sores, name's reserved and that's who for" 'Son of a bitch' "You got nine lives, she's got ten, after that she'll ride again. Bit of a badass anyone can tell, that crazy bitch is hell's angel" The next part was fast rapping, he barely caught what was being said, but what he understood was it was naming state's bad fates. The song finished up with the chorus and he took out the earbud and cautiously handed it to the girl who was obviously trying to judge his reaction,

"Well," she started, keeping her voice low "You've got a bit of a heads up, at least. I spent hours last night trying to find the best way to tell you guys. I'm not from this timeframe" 'Makes the tech make sense then,' "But I'm also not from this universe."

"Then just where are you from?" He could see her starting to stress over it,

"Um, sorry, this is the hard part. In my universe, you, and Freelancer too, are the backstory of a webseries I watched."

"So you know our future?"

"Yeah, if you want to put it like that, I guess I do."

"Are you going to tell me my fortune?"

"Uh, how about, if you're ever using paint guns in the training room, and your friends start using live ammo, take them out with your own paint gun. Don't go warn the person they're shooting at, she knows." 'That was a little too specific'

"Why, what happened?"

"It turns out they had a grenade and the only reason you made it out of there was because you were shot up with paint to harden the armor" 'She wouldn't warn me if that was all'

"So what went wrong"

"Left side of your face wasn't covered, your eye couldn't be saved. It's the damn left side that gets you shot later on." She flinched after saying that last part, probably hadn't meant to tell him he died.

"Well I'll be sure to use the gun then." He paused for a moment "Do the others know yet?" Beck let out a sigh

"The Director, The Councilor, Wash, and North already know. I still need to tell five more people who are here now, and then Tex when she shows up."

"Who're the five people"

"I'm about to go tell South, I need to tell Carolina and Maine, and then Wyoming and Connie"

"Well good luck with that, you'll probably need it." The conversation trailed off when Beck didn't respond, he attempted to reignite it, but Beck was clearly distracted by her own thoughts. "It was nice meeting you, Beck, guess I'll be seeing you around?"

"Huh?" She met his gaze "Yeah, you should, see ya 'round" He left her sitting there, seeing Wash moving back on over now he'd finished talking with her.

'Probably one of the strangest encounters yet, and we're fighting aliens' York did take her words to heart however. Particularly the part about his loosing an eye. So when they started asking him to volunteer for initial combat testing with a new arrival the next day, he refused their offer.

* * *

**Earlier that day, Beck**

Once she'd waken up from a pleasant dream, leisurely climbing a mountain and picnicking under the vast canopy of stars as the sun set, a soldier left the room and came back in with a few medical personnel. They took her blood, a few laughing when she held out her arm for it, instead using a pen-like object to take it from her neck, and checked the scars from the bullets. All but gone. They ran her over with a scanner to check for any differences since their first when she was unconscious. Then the doctors gave her a small tray of food for breakfast and sent her to wait for someone to pick her up. She was thoroughly surprised when it was Wash, of all people, that showed up.

"Oh, it's you" She quickly finished her meal.

"Is there a problem?"

"No! not at all, I was just expecting someone more... Official, I guess"

"They were going to, but they noticed you reacted better to me and North than you did the higher ups" Beck felt herself go red, 'Ah yes, a rather good social move on their part. Realizing you're an anxiety riddled kid when they're around'

"Yeah," She fiddled with the hem of the tee. "So you going to give me the grand tour?"

"Something like that, you've got a bit of paperwork you're going to need to do." She made an over dramatic sigh. He picked up a notepad next to the bed Beck was sitting on.

"Okay, first things first, full name," Beck crinkled her nose

"Are you sure "Beck" isn't good enough?" He looked at her for a moment. She threw her hands up "Fine, Don't laugh. Rebekah Maria Beckendorf. I prefer just Beck above all else." She paused a moment while he typed it in. "Couldn't they have just looked at my stuff? I know my full name's on at least one of my notebooks."

"That just brings up a bunch of legal problems, easier to ask you for it, than go digging and get into some major trouble" 'Well they do get into some major legal trouble later, but it's for a bit more than rummaged through stuff.' The rest of the form was filled out with ease, most of the questions she was utterly unable to answer, or perplexed by.

"Have any relatives moved into a moon colony, if so, which moon?"

"You realize in my time, people hadn't even landed on Mars yet, much less set up any sort of colonies"

"I'll guess the same goes for out of solar system colonies too"

Once they were done he took her to what looked like a normal workout room except for the large viewing platform that seemed to be everywhere.

"Y'know, I'm almost disappointed at the lack of future-ness this room has."

"It's on a spaceship, what more do you want"

"Good point" In the room a bunch of sciencey medicaly looking guys came over to her. They started attaching sensors to her forehead and various parts of her body while Wash explained it.

"So what they're going to do is measure your vitals and they're supposed to keep track of your muscle growth and all that while you're on here." They lead her to a treadmill and Beck began at a fairly leisurely pace.

"A bit more science experiment than futuristic, but I'll let it slide"

"Well" He glanced back down at the notepad "If you're looking for futuristic, after this it says to take you down to get armor. Tomorrow you'll go through initial combat testing"

"Really? That's a bit faster than I thought it would take" 'A lot faster actually, though I don't really see why they'd put it off, it still raises suspicion'

"It's a pretty efficient system. And you are a special case, it makes sense to try and get you out onto the field as quickly as we can." She accepted that answer and stopped responding as the officials cranked up the speed. In a way she was glad things we moving so quickly with the training. She couldn't wait to shake this organization up.


	11. Chapter 11

(Yeah, this is a bit late. Also, I've reached the end of the pre-written, so things may come out a bit slower, I'll try for at least one for every two weeks at least, but I'm really bad with schedules, sorry. Next flashback's going to be a fight scene that I'm going to try and do well so that may add tot the time it takes.

I do not own Red Versus Blue or any other materials that aren't mine)

**Present day, Tex**

The moment she thought she'd taken Caboose far enough that he wouldn't fuck this up too bad, she doubled back to where Beck was waiting. She perched a ways away so that Beck couldn't see her. As well as anyone approaching the amnesic universe jumper. Such as a certain purple villain.

Tex knew, to an extent, how Omega functioned; she knew he wouldn't be able to resist making another kidnapping attempt when they'd left the kid out in the open. He'd very briefly gotten a glimpse inside Beck's head during Freelancer, and he understood the damage he could do with the information tucked inside her head.

She wasn't left waiting long, she saw the purple figure slink over to where Beck was sitting next to Lopez. About the same time the turret stopped shooting, The kid looked up at the end of the noise, then noticing the medic. Tex set the sniper's sights on him, but didn't shoot. Beck wouldn't want the medic killed, but if he started anything, she'd take the shot.

She let them talk.

* * *

**Present day, Beck**

When the gunfire started, Beck got really worried for them and freaking out about what she hadn't told them, 'I didn't warn Tucker about the mpreg thing, shit. Gary! I forgot about him too, oh no-' so she started talking to Lopez.

"Actually, you make it through all the seasons so far, I'm not sure where you are in twelve, it just started, but I'm sure you'll show up. You've had to be fixed up quite a few times though."

"Sí, usted mencionó algo acerca de ser una cabeza muy decidido antes." -Yes, you mentioned something about being a very determined head earlier.-

"Yeah, you were supposed to be attached to the body when it blew up, but I guess you're kinda in the same position as you would've been. Well not exactly the same, but similar in the detached head sense-" The sound of bullets stopped filling the area.

"Hey, they finally took that thing out." As she turned to the building she saw the purple villain walking down, missile launcher in hand. She jumped to her feet, picking up Lopez's head. She prepared herself to run if needed and began to babble,

"Heyyyyy, uh, long time no see, how's the future suiting you."

"Actually, things haven't been to bad, have you seen the new base?" She was silently thankful Doc was helping her stall Omega, whether he knew it or not.

"It's nice. I'd say, what, 80% good luck?"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to look into the school district-"

"Stop your procrastinating before I rip out someone's eyeballs and make you eat them" 'Ah, there he is' She tried to ignore the flop in her stomach and tried harder to not envision the threat.

"Lovely imagery. And whatever could I be procrastinating, I'm just making some conversation, that's what people do right?"

"Only boring people"

"Then what would you like us to talk about?" Beck set down Lopez's head as slowly and as casually as she could while she thought up a plan. Luckily the head didn't speak, she'd always known he was the smart one around here.

'I haven't thought long term solution to this have I? Well, if he's just in the helmet, I should be able to just rip it off him. Boom, free Doc.'

"Your agreement to assist me in world domination would be acceptable"

"Hmmm, sorry, I'm not ready to commit to something like that right now. Too busy trying to figure out how the hell to save everyone."

"That's an easy solution. You don't. Let oblivion take them all"

"No"

"So we're back to plan A then" He started walking toward her, obviously, with violent intentions. A shot went through his shoulder, making him drop the rocket launcher. A quick glance revealed Tex as the source, perched on the base. "Ow!"

Beck quickly looked between the shooter and her now slightly stumbling target. 'Now would be a good time to get Doc out of there.' She shouted out to Tex, who was again taking aim, and Beck ran towards him.

"No, no! Don't kill him" She used Domalley's unstable balance to move him downward("Hey!") so her right arm went across his chest and grabbed the uninjured right shoulder, restraining their movement more("Stop that!"), while she scrambled for the release with the other. Once she got it she started to try and pull it off, O'malley had caught on to her intentions at that point and was trying to pull it back on with one hand. Just as she was making progress with getting it off, she stopped suddenly as a blood curdling yell came from him.

It wasn't just one or the other that screamed, but both in an horrifying chorus. Beck let go, panicked, and back a few steps away, and froze. 'I fucking messed up didn't I. Oh shit, oh no.' She was scared she'd extensively hurt either one of them, 'You f***ing idiot, you can't forcibly remove an AI like that, why the hell did you think that was close to a good idea. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot' A thousand worse case scenarios ran through her head as Domalley pushed their selves back to their feet after securing the helmet on.

It was only when Domalley angrily approached her that she realized she couldn't actually move, the armor seemed to have been locked in place.

"If you make another pathetic attempt to free the miserable medic, I will ensure him a crushing end at your own hand when I-" An orange hologram of a man appeared in front of Beck and stopped him in his tracks.

"When you what? Jump through her radio and into her armor? And what would you do when finding it already occupied, brother?"  When she heard that voice she quickly felt for any buzzing in the back of her head. Nothing but her own heartbeat.

"She never told me you were implanted"

"I wasn't. While I was able to create a small neural link through the helmet, we've come to an agreement that I may assist Miss Beck without it." 'I never agreed to that'

"You're served the key to domination on a platter and you don't even wield it properly. Not very ambitious of you"

"It's more of a creative way to an ambitious goal. I don't want to fight you now, brother. Go and lick your wounds, your human is leaking" The purple villain grabbed the bleeding shoulder, as though just then noticing it. He then trudged off, kicking Lopez on his way down the beach, getting a "Ay dios!" from him.

Beck felt the suit allow motion again and turned her head towards Sigma, pretty pissed off.

"If you ever do that again, I am fucking throwing you in the ocean"

"My apologies, I assume you didn't enjoy being shut down suddenly" 'Is that what he's upset about?'

"While I'm sorry for my forcefulness, that was more of a survival move than a malicious one. However, if I tell you to shut down, shut down until I tell you to log back on, understood?"

"Understood" She looked over and saw Tex halfway over, a flock of rainbow colored sim-soldiers following a ways behind her. 'Probably heard the scream"

"I promise to talk more later, but for now, please log off" The orange figure blinked out and Beck went over and checked Lopez out for any dents

"Eso podría haber ido mejor." -That could have gone better-

"Could've gone a lot worse too."

* * *

**Years in the past, Beck**

Fitting had gone about as well as she'd thought. It was definitely a lot more "futurey" than the other activities. She listened intently to the uses of the armor and the maintenance needed. It was actually pretty interesting, even if she did keep referencing pop culture from 500 years in the past that no one besides her got.

Lunch had gone well. She thought it did anyways. Beck tried to approach South afterwards to try and explain the situation to find she'd already gotten about half the story from her brother. She navigated through the aggressive questioning, trying to quell fears she might have had. After they'd gotten to a good conclusion, Beck got swept off to go see another part of the ship.

By the end of the day, she'd only been able to tell those two more people. After her day was done she was led to a small bunk where she unpacked her stuff and reflected on the day. She tried to not stress over the very many things she could stress about and instead worked on a story to tell them other than 'lol sim troopers kick your ass'. She was always decent at worldbuilding, this seemed like an extreme test of it.

Her dreams were smudged and she couldn't quite remember them upon waking.

Beck was almost immediately swept off to receive armor after she woke up. This was moving quite quickly. It felt weird putting on and it took a moment to adapt to the odd weighing of it. Adjusting to the strength difference wasn't as easy, but she caught on quick.

Then she was prepped for initial combat testing. She was given a run through of what it would entail by none other than the team leader herself. Beck wished she could say she was paying close attention, but they'd given her the baton for round one and she was messing around with it.

"If you're not going to pay attention I could stop right now" She turned her head to see Carolina crossing her arms.

"No no! Sorry, just getting used to this." Beck adjusted her hands on it, lightly tossed it from hand to hand before returning to the position, judging the weight. Remembering what her friend taught her she spun it around in her hands before tossing it skyward, spinning around and catching it.

"Impressive throw."

"I wanted to join wintergaurd one year, my friend taught me how, but I had some stuff come up. Still fun to spin though." She tossed it a few more times while number one finished explaining what the three rounds were. FILISS gave a minute warning.

"That's my cue to leave, any questions"

"Yeah, one who am I going up against?" Carolina nodded towards the other side where a silver armored soldier moved a baton idly

"Wyoming, good luck kid"

"Thanks, I'll probably need it." Beck waited as it counted down, 'Well, at least it's not Maine'

"Round begin"


	12. Chapter 12

(Very, very sorry for the wait, life's been insane and I've started college and band again, so this chapter might not be as long as you deserve. On the plus side, I found a time to write out the ways this entire story could go, along with possible sequels. So there's that. Also I'm a little mean to Beck in this chapter, that was sort of unintentional.

I do not own Red Versus Blue or Halo)

**Present Day, Beck**

"What in the name of sanity was all that yelling" The sim troopers caught up to her. Beck took some deep breaths to calm down before responding to the Red team leader.

"Domalley came this way, but I'm fine, promise." She turned her head slightly to see Tex standing unapologetic with the sniper rifle in hand. She'd have to talk with her a bit later about this.

"Man, whatever, we planted the bomb, just blow that place up already." She noted the sword hanging off the teal soldier's leg. 'Ah well, too late for stopping that'

"No! Don't blow it up, we found Church in there!"

"Really?" She asked "could you show me?" 'Probably the message'

"Okay but he's being really mean right now,"

"When is he ever not mean?" Grif asked rhetorically.

"Well there was that one time-"

"Hey, Caboose, buddy," Beck cut him off "We can worry about him being mean later, right now I'd just like to see him."

After a bit more coaxing she'd managed to get him to lead her to the computer terminal. Beck instructed Tucker to stay outside and she went in with everyone else. She pushed the button and listened to the entire message.

"Hey, Caboose, listen up this is important. There's some bullshit prophecy going on, and apparently you're the one who's going to lead to this place being blown up. I dunno all of it, ask Beck, I guess. Just don't fucking touch anything, and if you find a laser sword, under no circumstances should it come in here, the whole place would go into lockdown. It's some artifact or something. So whatever you do, do not blow this place up. You hear me?" The message ended. Beck went to run her hands through her hair, but was met with a helmet. She set her hand down to help hold Lopez and looked over to Tex.

"Is the bomb on a timer?" She laughed.

"You think I trust these idiots enough to give them a time limit? No, remote detonator, the detonator's got a countdown though."

"Thanks, I think we just wait it out for Church to get here, and keep Tucker out of here or this place goes into lockdown-"

"Hey, are you talking about me?" Said sim trooper set one foot inside and jumped in the rest of the way when the gate tried to close on his head. Beck sighed.

"Um, Beck, is the bomb supposed to be doing that?" She looked at what Donut was motioning to and saw the timer counting down from a minute. She sighed deeper.

"It's a trap! The blues just wanted to drag us down with them in a suicidal ball of fire." She smacked both hands on her helmet in exasperation at her "leader". Tex ignored them and spoke to her quietly in a serious voice.

"Someone sent the detonation signal on the same wavelength as the remote." 'Gary.'

Beck made her way through the chaotic running around, yelling of "we're all going to die" and similar such things to get to Andy the Bomb. She leaned really close and whispered angrily, hoping this would work, otherwise her last words would be a threat to an inanimate object.

"Andrew D Kaboom You better stop detonation right now or I swear I will get a hold of the time unit currently in play and I will make sure you were never created, that the pieces to make you were never made, and the metals you're made out of were never even mined out of the ground. Stop detonation or so help me you'll have never even lived to regret it"

The timer stopped at five and the numbers were replaced with a word. "Damn" It then disappeared off the screen. Beck pushed herself back to her feet. 'And now one more thing' She was aware of the ending chaos as the running around slowed and stopped altogether. She walked up to the computer terminal.

"Gary, could you please get us out of lockdown? No one here is the great destroyer" 'Mostly because that prophesy is bull,'

"Alright" The mechanical voice stopped any residual panicking and the gate opened back up. Just at that moment Church dropped from the sky with a pop.

"Took you long enough," Tex was the first to leave the building.

"Sorry, I kinda was recovering from someone putting a bomb in my gut" Red team started whistling innocently. "Oh," Church continued, looking at Beck "See you got that helmet after all"

"So you had something to do with it?" Beck asked,

"Well I figured because Tex got pissed at you for not bringing it, you'd need it, I got Gary to send it to you. You're welcome, by the way."

"Yeah. Thanks, how was the past?"

"The past sucked."

"Will someone explain what's happening" Grif stood off to one side, watching the conversations going down. Simmons answered him,

"I think what's happening is Church went to the past, and the only thing he did to change anything was bring Beck her helmet."

"Dude, why not change the whole "you dying thing" if you went to the past?" Church scoffed at his teammate

"Because I've learned that things can't be better and they can't be worse so you should shut the fuck up and deal with what you have." 'Oh yeah, he totally tried to change it didn't he.'

Beck settled a few arguments and gave a loose explanation of what was going down in general as they set up this place as camp for the night.

"So" They'd started a campfire, not that it was really needed because the sun didn't set, but everyone was sitting around it anyways. "We need to be on the lookout for an alien, he's going to show up here soon looking for that." She motioned to Tucker while he was playing with the sword, cutting at the wood gathered for the fire.

"No way am I going to let them take my thing, it's the most kickass thing I've gotten since I joined this dumb army."

"They couldn't anyways, it's, like, adapted to your genetic makeup, no one else can use it, even if you wanted them too."

"What happens to us, because I can assure you we won't stick around for the Blue's drama." Beck fiddled with her fingers.

"Actually, at this point Lopez was supposed to be evil-" Mentioned robot head commented from a rock next to her.

"y es una lástima que no soy. En cambio estoy atascado con idiotas." -And it is a pity I am not. Instead I am stuck with you idiots.-

"And he would've made robots for Domalley's army, and they would've chased you away. In your search for a new place to hide, you find a signal that leads you back to Blood Gulch"

"That place's still around?"

"Yeah Simmons, you still have two more seasons to go in there. The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the first five seasons. This is still season 3, even though it's the end of it."

Beck explained it a bit more before the Red team broke off to have a secret meeting about what to do. Beck wasn't included in the vote, not necessarily because they didn't want her to, but more that she needed to talk with the Blues about the prophecy. Just as she was explaining the blue team splitting up, a noise sounded from inside the building.

'Crunchbite'

Beck jumped up and ran inside, aware the others would probably soon follow. She went to where Gary was and tried to get info on where the alien was through his "The end is near, the great destroyer has arrived"

"Yes, you've said that, calm down, where is he?"

"-destroyer has arirved. The end is near. The gr-" A noise behind her made her pull out the gun at her side and spin around.

Church showed up just in time to see Beck get shot with the plasma needles in a line from her heart to the top of her helmet and see her drop like a stone. Her visor was shattered and blood dripped out.

He would later deny being the one who screamed loudly.

* * *

**Years in the Past, Beck**

Once the countdown hit zero Beck began pacing slightly nervously, waiting for Wyoming to make the first move. 'C'mon, what was his style again?' She searched her memories for the fight with Tex. She then quickly disregarded that idea as they didn't show him fighting so much as getting beaten up.

Beck began spinning the pugil stick, seeing that the agent was waiting for her to try something. He took this idle action as a cue to start. She went immediately on the defense, trying to see a pattern or an opening. She swept the stick to the side while he was trying to hit her vertically, she got in a hit, but was hit before she could regain control of the stick.

'Son of a fuck that stings,' She stepped back and continued to try and block. She tried to get in a few, but she always stumbled over herself, still not accustomed to the armor. She got in two more hits, he got in six. However it'd taken so long to get just that many hits, and Beck was starting to feel tired. She went in for one last hit, a make or break type thing. If the hit connected, Wyoming would probably be out for the count, if it missed, she'd be too far off balance and wide open. She swung.

He just took a step back and swung his.

"Round one over. Point: Wyoming"

Beck picked herself off the floor. 'Well that was fun,' And she wasn't necessarily being as sarcastic as she could've been.

"Round two: Hand to Hand Combat" 'I'm pretty sure he sucks at this one, if the locker fight is anything to go off of.' He got into a fighting stance, and Beck mirrored it. 'probably proud of himself for that last one, that was pretty easy for him.'

"Begin" Now hand to hand would probably be better, no need to look out for hands and spinny sticks of doom. Just punching and kicking mostly. She could do that. She continuously thought through her self defense class.

'Women have stronger lower bodies, while men have stronger upper. So if I use my legs more, and use my entire body to power my punches, I should be able to do this.'

Blocking with one hand she went in for a hook with the other, they blocked each other's punches and she used this opportunity to kick him backwards. Beck ran at him and ducked a punch and went for the stomach with another. She got hit with one while trying to get back in position and fell over. She rolled away and sprung back onto her feet a bit away from Wyoming.

'This is pretty great' She had adrenaline pumping through her by now, getting her excitement flowing as well. She went in for a kick and he dodged it so she went in for another, and he blocked that one and the next one. She went in for a punch and got one in return, she stumbled backwards away from him and then stepped back a bit more.

'Wow, that hurt.'

She let out a laugh, this whole thing was ridiculous; she's just some kid. Some kid fighting a trained killer so that she can learn how to kill people to prevent deaths of the killer's teammates. Much more exciting than the summer classes she was going to take. She laughed a bit more, partially out of the insanity of the situation, partially because she just knew she'd be feeling that last punch in the morning.

She noticed her opponents steps falter. Oh, she still sounded like a kid didn't she, her laugh wasn't the most mature action. Beck hadn't thought Wyoming could hear her. 'Good to know he sees something a bit off about fighting a little girl. Still gonna fight him though.'

She ran up and threw her whole body into a punch at his helmet, knocking him back some bit, he didn't get up for a little bit. She almost felt a bit bad. 'No, I'll have time for apologies later, I've got to prove myself now.'

"Round two over. Point: Beck" 'At least they're using the name I want them to'

"Setting up the floor for Lockdown Paint Scenario" Pillars rose up and Beck grabbed and loaded a gun. 'Ah, this'll be intersting'

In the first round once F.I.L.I.S.S. said go Beck ducked behind a pillar and listened for him moving. when she didn't hear anything she figured he was waiting for her to make a move. She quickly shot her head out near the bottom and a shot of paint went right over her head. She pulled it back and then shot blindly in the space where she'd been shot at. After six shots she glanced to see him standing behind a pillar, one hand stuck to it. She took quick aim while he tried to free his gun hand, and after multiple shots she got enough to count as a win.

'Haha, sheer dumb luck, my favorite thing.' The next round she was taken down almost right away. The round after she'd gotten lucky and gone around when he was looking the opposite way and got a hit, he got the next two easily. Beck charged on the next one and scored.

'How long does this go on for?' She was starting to get a bit bored of it. She crouched behind a pillar and was shaken out of any traces of boredom she'd had when actual gunshots filled the air. The pillar she was behind was being shot apart. Beck made a run for a different one, the bullets following in her wake.

'They are not gonna pull this shit on me, no way' but it seemed she didn't have a vote. She wove around the pillars, avoiding the bullets as best she could.

Beck was pretty sure she had a bullet stuck somewhere near her ribcage, she didn't know for sure because of the panic she was feeling. Finally it seemed he'd lost track of her weaving and began to pace the rows.

She stopped and took a moment to check herself over. She had been hit, once on the left shoulder. It was hard to move her arm.

The pillar she was behind had already been partially smashed with bullets. She took a chunk of the concrete and breathed calmly once before throwing it skyward in an arc. The rocks on the other side of the field clinked together and shifted and she hoped he turned to look at it. She threw another a bit away from the first, as though she'd ran over there when he wasn't looking.

Beck stood as quick as she could and saw Wyoming's back, she shot at him and made contact once before he turned back to her to continue shooting, she got in three more hits, accurate enough to count as a take down and F.I.L.I.S.S. started to call for medical staff.

'But I hit him with the paint, he's gonna be fine'

Everything seemed a bit distant.

She hadn't realized she'd said that out loud until she hurt when she breathed mid sentence. She looked down at herself when the medical team went towards her instead of the paint covered figure.

"Oh"

She'd gotten three hits in on him in the time it took for him to almost instinctively land four in her chest.

She fell over before they could reach her.


	13. Chapter 13

(Shhhh, I have no excuse really besides just school in general. Unsure of my update schedule from here on out. This isn't as well stitched together as I wanted it to be, I needed to introduce characters and finish up stuff from the last few chapters, but hey, CT intro is in here, that's important. There'll probably end up being a few filler chaps coming up where it's just dumb snippets of bonding and such. It might also be a separate story on here going "hey bonding time"

I do not own Halo or Red Versus Blue)

**Years in the past, Wyoming**

They were testing him, of course. To see how far he would go to follow orders. It was the only explanation that made sense.

He'd had a plan. Make it through the first two rounds, then give the recruit, "Beck", according to the scoreboard, a challenge with the live rounds. If he was good enough to get in freelancer on such short notice, there must be a good reason. The rumor going around the crew was that he was a genetic experiment the Dakotas found at the cryogenics facility.

However, Wyoming wasn't expecting a young girl's laugh to come from the orange and blue armor. 'They're expecting me to shoot some kid?' Most of the sympathy was lost when he- no, she- when she continued her attack on him. The next few rounds he made note of the childish tactics she resorted to.

'They're testing me' The next round he loaded the live ammo.'

'They wouldn't give the orders if they knew she couldn't take it. Wouldn't want to break their new toy.' He rationalized after he got one hit in on her shoulder. In his justifying of his actions he lost track of where she ran in the rubble. He heard a noise to his left. then another to his right.

She had a shot hit him in the arm and he spun around to disable her first. He got four shots out to her chest before he noticed she wasn't dodging them. Beck got three more hits on him and a medical team ran to her. He walked past them, he took their test, there was no need for him to stick around anymore.

He wasn't asking about the kid's condition later, no matter what it looked like.

**Present Day, Simmons**

The team had been discussing how they were going to get Beck to go back to Red Base with them instead of her chasing whatever wild goose chase the blues were going to go on when they heard the yelling.

"I don't think she'd appreciate the kidnapping idea"

"It's better than letting the blues brainwash her" The cyborg was trying to come up with a logical response to that when yelling came from where the blues were gathered.

"Wow!"Donut intoned "That high pitched scream could only be Beck, she must be in trouble!"

"I knew the blues were going to try something, turn your back for one minute,"

They ran over to where the fire was and saw the see through figure of Church explaining something to the other three blues.

"-And there was some thing standing right fucking there, and she's lying on the ground, dead."

"No, she was just sleeping. with needles in her head."

Simmons looked around the fire, it was only the blue team.

"Where the hell Beck go?"

"Oh, uh, shit. Don't know how to tell you this but she's dead, gone, kaput."

"I knew we couldn't trust you, trying to even up the ranks huh?"

"Oh, so it's my fault she wandered off?"

Tex stepped between both of the team leaders.

"She's not dead, trust me, but we do need to get her back from that thing."

"How are we going to do that, it scared the soul out of Church, I'm not going in there" Simmons almost felt sorry for the teal soldier when Tex gave him a look like he was the last puzzle piece left in a simple puzzle.

"Actually you are"

**Present Day, Tucker,**

'Oh, fuck, it's gaining' He ran out of the building, still waving the sword wildly to get the alien to chase him. He tripped and the alien started trying to either rip off his arm or take the sword, it didn't seem to be that picky.

Tex, that bitch, then tackled it to the ground, hitting it until it stopped trying to hit Tucker. He got to his feet and saw the pink guy and the dark red guy dragging Beck's body out. She had purple spines sticking out of her front.

"She looks pretty dead Tex." The taller one whined

"I don't think anyone can take that many shots to the face"

"Shut it. Just take out the needles"

They started taking them out while Church ran out with his body back and Tex tied up the alien. The other two red guys were nowhere in sight.

Once they were all out, Tex pushed the reds out of the way to their complaints and slowly pulled off Beck's now broken helmet.

Her face, although covered in a shitton of blood, didn't have any holes poked in it. Tex shook Beck's shoulder and she deeply gasped for air.

"Holy fuck"

**Present Day, Beck**

She was running, it was close, she just needed to get out. She saw the light pouring from the open door. Almost there, Once I'm out I'll be safe, Almost there-

She woke up.

Everything hurt. She tried to check things out before she gave away she was awake, but her lungs were screaming for air so she took a huge gasping breath.

'Son of a bitch that hurts' She turned over and curled in on herself. Just a few more minutes sleep, she'd feel better then. Maybe her headache would go away then.

A hand lightly shook her shoulder. She just curled away even more. It was quiet. Then her ears seemed to wake up. 'Okay not quiet' Someone was swearing a list that impressed her, others were just yelling, while others still were cheering. The voice closest to her was trying to quiet them down.

A gunshot sounded, "I said shut the fuck up" Beck vaguely recognized the angry voice and remembered where she was. She peeled her eyes open, she had something on her face. Beck slowly picked up her head and looked where the voice was. Tex.

"Hello." She looked around, the Reds and Blues were standing around at various points, an alien was tied up in a corner. She was lying in the dirt. Everyone was looking at her. "What happened"

"You died!" Her head snapped toward Donut, 'wow that didn't help my head'

"That doesn't sound very fun." She looked at Tex again "Did I really?"

"No, it just looked like it, kid. Go the fuck back to sleep." She didn't have too much energy to argue.

"Okay..."

**Years in the past, Beck**

When she woke up from the dream she couldn't remember Beck groaned when she realized she was back in the med bay. Beck remembered the end of the fight and cursed herself mentally for not realizing she'd been asking for trouble trying to sneak up on a trained soldier. She very determinedly ignored the headache. 'Why am I even having a headache? The shots weren't to my head- nope, what headache? I don't know what I'm talking about, 100% no headache.' She looked around and gave a nod to Flowers over by the door. She was in full armor except for her helmet. She ran a hand over the chestplate where she'd gotten shot 'They must've fixed it already.'

The helmet was sitting off to the side and she picked it up and, seeing no one stopping her, put it back on. Just as she swung her legs over the side the door opened and a doctor from earlier entered. 'What was her name, Atwood, right?'

"How are you feeling Miss Beckendorf?" 'Uhg, why'd I tell them my name? Because you were asked what it was by one of your favorite characters so you let them know' Her head really was still hurting though.

"I'm actually having quite a bit of a headache, ma'am, but I'll be fine. Am I free to go?"

"Not yet. The headache is understandable."

"Wait, do you know why?" 'It'd be really nice to know'

"We ran some scans and we suspect it's a side effect from your body healing. We ran some scans and your brain is going off rapidly to repair the damage, its possible that's where it's coming from" 'huh, sounds dumb, but I'm not dead, so... Maybe there's some merit to it?'

"Thank you"

"Just doing my job, we're going to be seeing a lot of each other while you're training, but hopefully it won't be like this all the time."

"Ha, yeah. No offence but it's never really good to wake up here, I've only done it twice and I'm sick of it already."

The doctor scanned her one last time before declaring her fit to leave the med bay. Beck left and started trying to remember the route to the room she'd been assigned. She saw a familiar purple figure walk past and she jogged up to him.

"Hey, North,"

"Beck, glad to see you up, some testing session right? You doing okay?"

"Eh, getting shot is overrated. Do you know where room.. uh... 162 is? I still don't know where anything is"

"You'll find your way around eventually,"

"Yeah, I think I'm going to be here for a while" 'And maybe I'll do something other than get shot again, like keep you from getting shot.'

* * *

The next few days were more tests, and more training. She quickly learned many things; privacy wasn't that big of a thing, for one. Beck had to quickly grow used to the co-ed locker rooms, and her actions almost always being closely monitored. She also found out the names for different weapons besides "Gun", "Big gun" "Rocket launcher", and "Knife". And the technology classes were amazing.

While mostly keeping to the few people she'd known and introduced herself to, Beck managed to expand her list of people in the know by two. She told Maine and Carolina at the same time once they'd ended up finally joining the others for lunch. Unsurprisingly, Carolina looked un-surprised at Beck's claims. Maine looked disbelieving about halfway through the rant Beck had prepared but by the end he seemed to at least accept it. It probably helped that everyone else was going along with it.

She'd tried to explain to Wyoming what was happening after she got out of medical, but he managed to avoid her for two days then left on a mission with Connie before she could talk to either one. When Wash told her, she suddenly remembered that those two had gone on a mission that failed in the series. 'Is this it?'

She prepared herself to explain things as unspecific yet useful as she could to an upset CT and, hopefully, prevent a line of tragedies. When she heard the team had gotten back she jogged down to the armor processing center and hoped she was in time

"-They're drawing a line between us, Wash. And you're either on one side of that line or the other-" She ran around the corner and stopped, cutting off Connie's speech.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Wash, could you," Beck nodded her head in a "get out of here" motion.

"Beck, we were kind of talking here, are you sure this is a good time?"

"It's the perfect time, sorry,"He got up and started walking out, hesitating at the doorframe before continuing on out. Beck sat on the bench Wash had just been on and tried to put on a cool composure, as though she hadn't just shooed Connie's friend out of the room.

"What the hell do you want" 'Okay wow, she's a bit angry'

"Sorry, sorry, but I had to catch you now, things get a bit tricky in the future."

"The future. What, are they accepting time travelers now?"

"Uh," Beck laughed nervously "Sort of, I accidentally jumped here from my universe, actually the past compared to this, but luckily I used to watch a webseries that seems quite a bit like this one, almost identical really, except that I'm in here" 'Okay, now you're rambling'

"But the point is, I know what's going on, I'm going to prevent some stuff from going down badly." She motioned to the spot next to her "Let's chat for a bit."

Beck could tell CT still didn't trust her, despite sitting down in the offered spot.

"You probably want to get out of that armor, so I'll try to make this quick." Now to try hinting "But talking about armor, this stuff is neat isn't it CT?" The mentioned Freelancer almost snapped at the kid about how she knew about her change of name, but catching on, she followed with a "Yeah"

"It's probably expensive as fuck though, I bet if I found a way to slip on home with it, they'd find out how to rip through the walls of the universe within a week, just to get it back."

"That seems a little excessive"

"Probably, just a bit, but it might also be motivated by other things, the armor recovery makes a good cover up though."

"Motivated by small things such as the fact you know our future?" Beck wasn't sure if she was just imagining it or if there was a bit of a smirk there.

"Exactly, now there's probably more to say, but like I said, I'll keep this short, maybe I'll see you in the mess hall sometime?"

"Yeah, maybe. By the way,"She got up, notably less angry and suspicious than when Beck entered "what did you say your name was?"

"Beck, nice to meet you CT"

"It's been a good talk,"

The Freelancer in brown stopped right before leaving.

"And Beck?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me Connie"

Beck would count that one as a victory.


	14. Chapter 14

(Life's been really nuts these past few months, I'm so so sorry the chapter's out so late! School started swamping me, and then this just blipped off my radar. Then I had to go and re-read it so I knew what was happening! I'll try to be more on top of it :( but I wouldn't expect more than one a month until the semester's over(of course, that means i might have three out by next week, oops). I'm not abandoning this story, it's just not the first thing on my plate right now, again, sorry. However, in light of this, I'll probably fill the end of the chapter with trivia about the story that was either edited out, a passing idea, or just didn't fit anywhere.

This ones a bit long, but I needed to get some stuff done in it, and I went a bit long with it. Also, any translations from Donut's PoV are not to be trusted, but I'll provide translations at the bottom of the segment.

A bunch of PoV switches in the present day part, most of red team gets a bit. And some day I may edit the swears back into this and fix it up, but not today.**(****EDIT: three days after, and i think today is the day, because fuck it. EDIT-EDIT: That was easier than I thought)**

I do not own Red versus Blue, Halo, Coca-cola, or any other brands mentioned in here

I am putting this up at 12:42 AM my time, lets hope I didn't miss anything obvious)

**Present day:**

Beck finally woke up, 'For real this time! C'mon, get up' By the time she'd opened her eyes, she noticed that for the most part, she was being ignored.

'Well that's pleasant' She got up from where someone had unhelpfully tried to pile rocks under her head like a pillow. Her helmet was shattered nearby. Cracking her neck back into place, she waved to Lopez, sitting on a rock, and continued to where the commotion was.

The main source of noise was Simmons standing in front of a blackboard, trying to teach the alien English. Everyone else was "helping".

"Maybe you need to try writing it backwards, that'll help" Church said, obviously mocking him. 'Oh hey, he's back in the robo body, at least.'

Beck saw Tex a bit away, facing away from where she was standing. 'I'll ask about the whole "not dead" thing in a bit, gotta check on someone first'

She turned away from the crowd and worked on quietly going inside the building. She still needed to talk to Gary.

When she got to the computer, a blue hologram popped up, accompanied by a monotone voice.

"Hello Beck. What brings you here today?"

"Well an explosion sent me here, so I figure that has something to do with it."

"I had nothing to do with that. O'malley is the one who blew you up"

"Uh huh, and you have nothing to do with it or any time traveling, right?"

"Of course, where would you get that idea from."

"Thanks for the helmet, by the way."

"No problem. Hey. Want to hear a knock knock joke?" Beck had half a mind to say no.

"Sure,"

"knock knock"

"Who's there"

"Iwood"

"Iwood who?"

"I would like to know what happens to him" 'Him? um, probably Wyoming.'

"What had happened to Wyoming is currently irrelevant, it won't be happening this time"

"Then you can tell me, and I can help" 'He's deceit, remember that Beck, talk carefully'

"He was trying to kidnap an alien savior, maybe to stop the war, I don't know. But you two kept looping to try and win, but someone else got looped with you and killed him to stop it." She purposefully didn't mention the casual mowing down of any and all time clones.

"Who killed him"

"Does it matter, it's not going to happen again, I'll make sure of it."

"But what if you can't"

"Well then I hope I told you enough to let you stop it." 'Okay, this conversation is pretty much over, I'd rather ask Tex about why I'm not dead'

"We are on your side Beck"

"Sorry if I don't believe you." She started to walk away, going around the red stain that was probably her own blood. She didn't hear the faint pop behind her, but she did feel the hand on her shoulder.

"Would you believe me?" Beck spun around and readied a punch that was poorly aimed and easily deflected. The soldier in white only halfheartedly blocked. He continued talking,

"Honestly, I'm hoping I don't have to go through another loop to get proof, it was hard enough last time." 'Not gonna ask, not gonna ask, not gonna ask-'

"Last time?" 'Fuck'

"When I took you up on your offer to catch up over baked goods, or before that when I stopped you in the snow and explained it to you. Or the time where you attacked me while I was escorting you to, what did you call them, Domalley?"

Beck sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the dirt and blood caked in it.

"Fuckin great. I'll assume that's where you got my codeword from?"

"Actually I went to your past self and explained you didn't trust me, I didn't know that I'd have to loop the first few times, so I never brought it up."

"Then why'd you have to loop?"

"Not everyone heals as quickly as you do" 'Oh?'

"So then you ran to my past self and wanted a better way to earn my trust?"

"Well it's worked so far"

"But if you can talk to my past self and you have all this power, why still work with Domalley? You know it doesn't end well, you could've warned me about the memory-wiping thing."

He sighed, " 'The show must go on' and all that."

"Excuse me?"

"It's not important now, but you have to try and keep this quiet, too many ears listening"

"But wait, if we're just chatting in the open, aren't we being monitored?"

"I thought you were more observant than that. I've already taken care of that problem, see." He motioned towards the stopped turbine.

"Oh" Beck put her hands on her hips. "Time stoppage, that would do it."

"So lets just try and keep this between us, dear Tex already knows about most of whats happening, so I'd deffer to her if you must ask something" He turned back towards the terminal.

"Wait where're you going?"

"The power supply's running out, the time unit really drains it, I'll be back at a later time," After he disappeared, the turbine started spinning again.

**(Grif):**

Sage had finally fixed another warthog, and Beck had run off again. Tex told him she hadn't gone far, but who knew if that was true. Once they got Beck they were getting out of here before she got herself shot again.

Not that he really cared. Not at all. Caring would be way more work than he felt like doing. Noooope.

"Beeeck" He tried calling again, this time getting a response.

"What? Oh yeah, hold on!" She ran down the hall. "Hey, what's up?"

"Grab your stuff, we're heading back to base"

"Wait, really? But what about the whole Crunchbite thing?"

"I don't know what that is, but if it's the alien, we're not getting involved."

"Aw, why not?" 'I'll let her figure that one out herself'

"Can you at least let me talk to Tex first?"

"Actually, I think she's coming with us, the other blues have to go on a quest or some bulls***." Beck looked surprised,

"Really?" Then she went contemplative.

"Yeah, you can figure all that out once we're back at base, Donut hasn't shut up about some promise you made"

"Forgot about that, promised to let him help me pick out clothes so I don't have to steal his."

"As long as I'm left out of it I don't care what you do"

"Besides stay here with the blues of course" He didn't feel like responding to that and instead started walking out of the base.

"Hey," Beck caught up with him "How're we getting back, because in the original, Donut was left behind and then met back up with you after he found Domalley's bike hidden in here. But that shit's wrecked, and now we also have me and Tex, seems like too much trouble to fit us all in..."

"Sarge fixed another warthog, I'm driving one, Tex's driving the other. He's pretty insistent you don't stay behind"

"Damn, fine, I'll find my helmet and grab Lopez"

**(Donut):**

Oh man this was gonna be great! Beck was sitting in the passenger seat with Lopez in her lap, while he manned the gun.

"So then I was thinking, 'where would I even find girl clothes aaaalllllllllll the way out here?' and then it hit me"

"mátame"~The mall~ Beck threw a glance at him, 'It's fine, it's not her fault she can't speak Spanish as well as I do, I'll just have to translate'

"No, no, the mall wouldn't work, Simmons says that apparently we're not allowed over there after-" The next turn was a little too fast, and he had to hold onto the mount.

"Woah, careful Tex! I almost fell off back there." He saw Tex readjust her grip on the steering wheel, to make sure she didn't do it again.

"And so then I had the idea of going online! Because we can still get mail and stuff"

"Deténgase. Al menos hasta que encuentre una manera de cerrar mis oídos." ~Nice job. Your manners are very good for thinking of oceans~

"I'm not sure what oceans have to do with it, but thanks anyways!"

"Hey," Tex said quite suddenly, he wasn't even done with his story yet! "I think the others are pulling over up ahead, I should go make sure we're on the right track."

She stopped the vehicle and went to talk to the other car. Lopez mumbled something Donut couldn't quite hear.

"Wait a sec Tex," Beck held out the head "could you take Lopez with you? He might help with remembering the map." The Blue took the head and walked over to the others. It was quiet for a moment. Beck absently kicked at the shattered helmet she'd put at her feet before trying to make conversation.

"So uh, what colors were you thinking?"

"Oh man, there's so many that would look nice! But I'd stick to the scheme you've got going on now. Usually that's what everyone does so laundry isn't as confusing, but greys are fair game."

He went on about seeing if they could get away with blue jeans when Tex came back over.

"It seems like they're tired of traveling today, we'll pick this back up after we get some rest."

"Aw man" Donut exclaimed, "I never get tired of riding, but I guess we should rest our sore bottoms."

Beck paused from getting out of the warthog. "I-Uh-Wel-Um, sure Donut. Lets do that."

((Translations: "mátame": kill me, "Deténgase. Al menos hasta que encuentre una manera de cerrar mis oídos": Stop. At least until i find a way to shut off my ears.))

**(Sarge):**

He knew fixing up the other warthog would be the best move, sure they had a Blue tagging along, but she didn't really count as one. Also, as much as Sarge hated to admit it, it was the Not-Blue's idea to get the kid out of there before the Blues tried to drag her into their awful "Plot shit", as Beck called it. And it was Tex that helped them convince Beck to come along. Much more efficient than kidnapping her, socially speaking anyways.

It was however mostly his idea to take a break after driving for a few hours, let his men get some sleep and they could switch around seating. He decided to take first watch, because that Not-Blue offered, but he wasn't going to show weakness to her.

"Hey, uh, Sarge, I can take first watch if you want" 'Huh? Oh, it's Beck' The girl had been acting strange since she went aside with Tex earlier.

"No need, Go get your beauty sleep, I've got you covered." Without her helmet, he could see the face that just reeked with patronization and disbelief.

"I've had enough "Beauty sleep" for a while, um, sir," He squinted at her, 'Still don't like the blue on that uniform'

"Well I sure as hell don't need mine"

"Okay then. Can I help keep watch then?"

"I don't see why not, if you're suuure you don't need to sleep."

"I'm sure." She sat down next to him and looked up at the sky. They were quiet from a long while, and his eyes were definitely not rebelling against him and slipping closed.

"Y'know" The girl started quietly, "There's so many galaxies past this sky, I wonder if I'll ever see them."

"Almost a shame their inhabitants want to kill us"

"Probably not all of them, just a few, maybe" He grunted back, not forming a coherent response, probably not because he was falling asleep.

He let his head drop for a second or two before Beck gently tapped his shoulder.

"Hey it's time for the next shift, go get some sleep so you can lead us tomorrow"

"Mmmmh. Someone has to do it,"

"Can't think of anyone better"

As he went to go lie down and pass off shifts, coincidentally to Beck, if he'd checked the time on his helmet readout, he would've noticed only half an hour had passed since he started his shift.

He fell asleep before he could check it.

**Years in the Past(Beck):**

About five weeks after first arriving, and a few days after the whole Almost CT thing, Beck was approached about the idea of a neural interface.

"Most of the soldiers in our program have it." Doctor Atwood explained, outlining the diagram "It allows easier navigation if the helmet's setting and by predicting your motions, the armor will respond better to how you move. Also, by linking in, you can get an accurate medical readout for yourself and your teammates."

Beck nervously passed the strings around her fingers and hesitated, the doctor noticed.

"We've done this more times than I can remember, you'll be fine" She then went into detail about what the surgery would entail and where, specifically, the incisions would be made.

On one hand, Beck would have a computer linked to her brain, where any aggressive suit jumping AI could just jump right on in. On the other, she improved her performance, and avoided a bit more suspicion. She also didn't know how her apparent healing factor would factor in.

After a bit more prompting and another assurance from the doctor, Beck agreed and signed papers. It was then clear that the time for operation was then, and not later. She had to stay conscious through it to ensure everything linked up right, but she fell asleep right after.

When she next woke up, her head hurt. Though not as much as it usually did when waking up in the med bay. Beck made a specific point of telling one of the doctors when they checked up on her.

Out of mere rules they made her stay there overnight, despite being fine after an hour. During what Beck assumed was later in the night, North came in and set down a red cylinder, making Beck look up from the solid color bracelet she was making. He was wearing his helmet, she noted. It looked a little scratched.

"Almost missed it, sorry I'm a little late, we're usually not allowed to know this kind of thing, but I suppose you're always the special case." 'huh? oh, right, the surgery'

"Really? It'd be a little hard to miss, apparently you have to stay in here at least twelve hours after, even if you heal from it within one."

"I think we're not on the same track here,"

"Um, I'm talking about the neural interface surgery?" He'd picked up the cylinder again and started passing it from either hand.

"Well, they just rolled you right on in there," 'Well yeah, it was sort of sudden' "I was talking about how this is your 42nd day here, Wash said it'd be about July 14th by your count," He held out the can, this time more directly offering it towards Beck.

"Happy birthday"

For a long moment, nothing went through her mind as she tried to backtrack. Wordlessly she took the offered can. Looking at it she saw an odd logo, with the words "Coca Cola" inside it. It didn't look like a Coke label she was used to.

"uhhm, ah," 'Wow nice one, Beck' "Thanks?"

"Can't say I'm surprised you didn't know what today was, probably not too many 2014 calendars lying around here." He brought attention back to the can "Old earth brand of soda, thought you'd like it."

"Yeah, I know this one, label looks different," 'might be because of the universe jumping, or just the change of the label through time, or there was no Coca-Cola here, and this is a completely different thing but still soda,' She pulled her attention back to the current going-ons. "Thank you, for remembering. And the soda, the soda was nice too"

"Don't mention it, kid"

When Beck woke up the next day, the table was covered in a few different "Earth novelties" and similar knockoffs, a few with small notes from their owners, the majority without. Among them was a small planner with overlapping dates. Both from 2014 and present day.

She had to smile.

Smile and hope the small sense of team unity would last until they got out of this mess.

She barely noticed that there were no blue armored soldiers at the door.

* * *

Beck was thinking about what she'd learned about neural implants while she pushed food around her plate in the mess hall.

"What's even the name of the show?"

The sudden question made Beck look up from her plate. Across from her she saw tan skin, freckles, and yellow-blond hair. Wash then.

She pushed the plate back, having prepared for questions like this, and provided the name,

"Most call it RvB for short, but the full name's Really Violent Battles."

"Why's that? It sounds a bit more dramatic then what you told me about earlier" 'Looks like Carolina's here too'

"Misnomer, its made to poke fun at itself because until you guys started getting wrapped up in it, the "battles" were actually just minor spats, yeah shots were fired, but they nearly never made contact."

A few more questions were shot back and forth, the fights were between two minor guardpost stations set up about 20 feet from each other by different military backers, mostly placed to extend the area they could claim was under their protection.

By the time she'd gotten that far into the story, Wash had to excuse himself from the table for a meeting.

Carolina then apparently turned up the interrogation a notch, while the conversation still seemed casual, she was asking more specific questions. 'It's times like this that I'm glad to be "too prepared"' The guardposts were in the middle of fucking nowhere, and the cast often complained about it. Freelance got involved in this story when an AI-

"Wait, what do you know about the AI project?"

"That it's happening here, probably around this time..." She'd entirely forgotten about trying to get Alpha out of here whole, 'Oh man oh man, oh man, there's no way I can stop it can I? I could burst in there all dramatic, like "stop this at once" but there's no way that'd work. Wait, Tex was already out and about wasn't she.'

"Hey, do you remember if the research station blew up?" Carolina's brow drew together.

"It did. That wasn't your doing was it?"

"Wasn't me, I wasn't the empty spot on the roster either." The teal, 'aqua? seafoam?', soldier stood up and probably started to excuse herself. 'Oh no you don't. that rivalry is going to be the death of us, i need to stop it now.' "Wait! Please hear me out first." After a few moments where Beck thought she would leave anyways, she sat back down.

"So who was it?"

"Um, I can't really tell the whole thing, but you'll find out soon enough, but please remember they're part of the team, no matter how she acts"

"And how will she act?"

"Uh, kinda cocky, in what she probably thinks is a friendly competitive way, but it doesn't come across like that." Beck put a hand on her head, 'But when is she coming over, is the thing. I know she's already about, but what is it that causes her introduction' A notification went off on her "future-pager-thing" just as she remembered. 'Fuck, its because of Omega' She went to check the message, mind full, not exactly hurrying, 'So I have until she shows up to get Alpha out, mostly unscathed. But until they have that alien thingy, no more progress can really be made, it needs to make them stable for implantation in the others, right? So as long as it's before Spiral, we should be good'

"Another training session," Carolina spoke up, looking at her own device, at the moment Beck finally opened the message "What are the chances it'll be as interesting as yours?" Beck was speechless for a while, processing the message.

"Well" She started, "two things say it will be. One, it's the person I was just talking about. And two," She turned the device to show the leader the request in the message "It's going to be four against one,"

* * *

**((Trivia: There's a lot because this is also** for** the chapters before this one.**

Originally when Beck shows up, she doesn't introduce herself all at once, she just stays with Donut and talks, then he tells Sarge after Simmons switches to guard duty. Beck convinces Simmons time is of the essence and they go on a short quest where they look for Sarge.

As an addition, in a very early draft, the "Do people like me?" with Simmons (Man, all this stuff happening with Simmons, I didn't plan it, I swear) it was a longer scene that seemed to have built up a friendship too quickly, and in it Beck accidentally reveals a bit about people's general shipping and very quickly covers it up with a different topic.

In this universe, I'm thinking that taking out an AI is like taking off a piece of duct tape on your arm. If you just rip it off without first carefully peeling it off most of the way, its not gonna end too well. Beck doesn't know this in her latest encounter with Domalley, mostly because her regeneration saved her from everything but some heavy dizziness. Her being the one to pull it off herself also helped a great deal (Now if only we could get Doc to take off his helmet himself... hmmm)

Beck hasn't actually seen the blues faces up to this point, along with a handful of freelancers.

The personality divide between her past and present self is going to be a growing difference. Her past self has to be more deceptive and act a little more subdued, while her present self is actually going to be a little more outgoing and open due to the different environments.

Beck is actually mildly ADHD and is prone to zoning out or hyper-focusing

Domalley is a ship name.  
Beck knows it is. Tex has figured out it is.

Height chart for red team: Simmons, Lopez with body, Grif, Sarge, Donut, Beck, Lopez without body. May update with specified heights in a later Trivia part))


	15. Chapter 15

(Woooooooooooooooow i'm late, but also here with a tumblr with the rtah stuff i see and probably updates about this story and possible others, it's yeah-thisisdumb, if you want to check it out. I'll answer any non super spoilery questions and reblog cool theories and art i like, or might work into this story. Also ten points to anyone who can guess what's up with the universe jumping stuff, there's hints, but its not too obvious i think. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong. If i'm suddenly writing in a different style, please let me know, I'm trying to become more aware of that sort of stuff.

Theres not too much canon characterization of Maine and some of the freelancers, so I'm really just gonna fill it in with some interpretations I like.

I was not feeling many other Povs today, sorry, just wanted to start updating again, after this one I'll start posting some filler fics separately under the title "WYWUAS Filler" and it'll take place between this chap and the next, timeline wise.

Okay, long preamble out of the way, Let's get going!

I Do not own Marvel, Halo, or Red Versus Blue)

**Present Day, Beck**

**Before the first night**

When they set up camp next to the river they'd been following upstream, Beck got pulled aside by Tex, leaving the rest of the team at their camp.

"Here, you still have blood in your hair" Beck squinted a little suspiciously and followed to the river bank, bending to rinse the grime that she couldn't wipe out earlier. Tex just stood there.

"What's up?"

"You'll have to tell them the truth at some point, you know" 'The truth? I can't think of too many outright lies, the only major ones are-' The soldiers harsh whisper stopped her train of thought.

"You'll have to tell them about the Simulation, the longer you wait, the worse it's gonna get" Beck flushed red with guilt and kicked at stones near the riverbed.

"I'll try to break it to them later, when the blues get back"

"No, tell them soon. They think they're helping in the actual war by dicking around here, when they'll only get themselves killed"

"I know that." Beck almost yelled before rubbing her face, sighing, and starting back at a whisper "they're just, finally starting to click with me and actually like me past 'Hey you can be useful for me' and it's nice. It's really really nice."

"You have til I get back or I'm telling them myself,"

"Woah wait, shit. Where are you going?" 'If she only gives me an hour, I might just run instead'

"I'm leaving tomorrow to track down a couple of assholes, It'll take three weeks, max" Beck slowly breathed out in relief.

"Blue team?"

"Hah, those guys have enough people in their nerd herd, I'm surely not joining them, I'm tracking down a few people trying not to be found, 'Domalley' being one of them"

"Why tomorrow?"

"My head's still wired to require sleep, kid. And I wanted to tell you a thing or two about your regeneration."

* * *

Beck's body wanted to remain the same. Or that was the gist of it, anyways. Her body was trying to hold her in stasis, but mind over matter still won out.

This means that, for the most part, she could unconsciously heal herself back to the way she was when she 'entered' under negative stimulus, or allow change to happen to her until it becomes recognized as negatively received change.

Beck kicked her legs against the boulder they were sitting on, trying to absorb as much information as she could while Tex explained.

"The tattoos were part of an experiment, how much could you control it? It was your own idea, but I won't say you weren't persuaded at all. Shore leave, you went and had a guy ink a fucking rectangle on your arms. It was pretty goddamn ridiculous, you sat there for thirty minutes with your eyes scrunched up and by the time you got back to our base, you had ink dripping off your arm, just where you wanted it."

Beck played with her hair, now drying in the sun.

"Yeah, but that was when it was fresh, do you think I could do it now?" 'I freaked out when I saw the tattoos, but they were definitely still there afterwards'

"Depends, do you want them gone?"

"Not really,"

"Well then, good, they'll stay"

"But when I woke up-"

"Yeah, you flipped the fuck out, so I heard, but did you want them gone then?"

"I don't think so," The younger enunciated "Mostly wanted answers"

"Then there you go"

"And the hair was mainly just to see how far the stasis went; If it grew out brown, we'd be sure something was happening. But it just never grew. Not sure if you can will it back to brown though, hair's not really living"

"Well I like the hair, reminds me of Rogue, yknow, from Xmen, mutant superheroes fighting injustice"

"I know who the fucking Xmen are"

A bit of quiet, Beck looked at the landscape and at the clock on her helmet, only a few minute until Sarge took first watch.

"I dunno, with the healing and knives, I'd say you're shaping up to be a pretty solid Wolverine."

Beck went down to a deeper voice.

"I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is fuck up storylines."

It got a laugh out of the super-soldier AI before she got quiet again for a while, long enough for the mood to settle.

"Hey, think of a way to tell them or they'll be in for a nasty surprise." Tex hopped off the boulder and walked over to the area she'd chosen. Slightly away from the others, but just close enough to Beck to be considered with them.

She looked down at the AI containment unit on her thigh and confirmed that the light indicated hibernation mode before heading off to check on everyone and give Sarge some needed rest.

**Years in the past, Beck**

Well this was a different grab-bag than she'd expected.

After getting the message and grabbing her armor, Beck had headed down to the training room for the last minute fight.

On one side was, well, Tex, that was expected, she seemed to be getting a sort of pep talk from the Director. The unexpected was that of the original three, only one was there, Maine. 'Makes sense, I kinda scared York off, and Wyoming is still avoiding me'

Taking their places were Connie and South 'Connie's trying to blend in more, and South wants the chance to prove herself?'

Then of course, Beck rounded off the four. 'Giving me a chance to check out the neurals.'

"Hey, sorry I'm late, what's up?"

"You probably already know," South almost hissed,

"South," Connie warned.

"Well it's true"'Fuck, I forget, did that intro not go well?' She might need to find a way to smooth that over later,

"She has a point" Beck admitted, "I'm just asking in case anything changed"

"Four of us against one recruit, three rounds, just like yours." Connie supplied, Maine milling around nearby.

"Same ones?"

"Yeah." South cut in, before being nudged in the shoulder by Maine "Oh, right. Did you get the pack of Twizzlers yesterday? We both chipped in for that one." A slightly harsher jab, "Fine, fine, I couldn't find anything so I wrote the card for it"

Thinking back, she remembered the bag of red candies and the folded paper taped to it.

"I got that one, Nice job on the card" 'Happy billionth birthday, here's a sack of cherry' Cherry scratched out, '_Strawberry_ flavored sugar to make sure you don't make it to the next one'

'So, maybe not as bad of an intro?'

"I was gonna make one for North's, but he had to go hand deliver his instead of waiting for me to finish armor processing"

"You did scrape it up to hell and back falling off the truck." Connie butted in.

"How was I supposed to know there was a bridge there, I wasn't the one driving the damn thing." Maine gave a shrug so apathetic that Beck could almost feel it.

Connie got their attention and nodded over to Tex's side of the field, the Director had started walking away, presumably to go watch the fight.

F.I.L.L.I.S.'s voice filtered over the intercom

"Round one beginning in Ten seconds"

The three got in some sort of formation, it seemed practiced. Beck hadn't learned that one yet so she just tried to go where it fit. They grabbed the pugil sticks and waited.

"Round 1, Begin"

* * *

Beck could now write several things off her bucket list. Not that she'd ever made one, but she now knew that if she ever did, she didn't have to put things like "Thrown by super strength robot during space soldier practice" and "Being thrown at a dude built like a brick wall in Halo armor with enough force to knock him over"

"Shit, sorry" Beck appologised as soon as she could breathe again She rolled off and her screen started flashing

"Hairline fracture on rib 7, Right side" 'The fuck is this? Wait. Which rib is 7 again?' A helpful diagram showed the location, and almost as soon as she reached out to touch that part of her body, the warning faded. It's vanishing was followed by a quiet ding. This happened in about six seconds, enough time for Tex to take down the rest of the squad momentarily.

Beck hopped up and grabbed the given weapon, charging again, more to stall than actually hit her. The suit moved better with the neurals in place, not as clunky as she'd first made it out to be, this let her dodge a few rather painful looking swings before being hit so hard that she slid almost to the wall.

More diagrams popped up, kneecap, excess bruising in arm, a little whiplash. As soon as she saw them and processed them, thinking about the damages and their location, the alerts vanished with a ding each. This took a bit longer, enough time for most of her teamates to get back up and be knocked over and not look like they're getting up so soon.

Beck sat up and saw Tex looking around, at the scoreboard, at the one way window. She was wondering why the round wasn't over yet. Beck jumped up and ran over to where her stick was and looked at Tex, who was now looking at the orange soldier. 'I'm so fucked'.

If Tex hadn't been trying her hardest before then she, well, was probably just trying a bit harder, not her hardest because Beck's skull was still inside her head. She was being hit from about every angle, only managing to dodge enough and heal enough to stay up and moving, not even getting a hit in. Her helmet actually became so full of warning lights that it filled her entire view-screen.

"Son of a-" A final blow that sent her flying to where her teammates were slowly getting up. She stayed down to heal, feeling quite tired.

"Round One, Point, Texas" 'Yeah, that figures, she earned it' Once all the warnings left her screen, she was getting tired of their closing noise, she could see the three standing above her.

"Well that was fun" Connie offered a hand

"How the hell did you take so many hits without going down?"

"My neurals were linked so I can see my injuries. Add that to a brain based healing system, or whatever it is I've got, and you can keep standing longer."

"Why'd ya stop then" Beck turned away from South and tried to run her hand through her hair, stopping when she it the helmet.

"I couldn't see past the warnings" That got a huff of some kind from Maine, seeming more of a laugh than out of anger.

The hand to hand segment went about the same. Beck was knocked out second to last this time, significant due to the fact that Tex seemed to focus more on her this round. She'd finally been taken down for the count when Tex ducked under a punch from Maine, and it hit Beck full force instead.

After she gathered her wits enough to start reading the messages, she heard F.I.L.L.I.S. announce the point for Tex. Beck took care of the more important damages first then closed out the tabs like Connie showed her, reducing them to little yellow warning signs along the side. She'd let them heal a little slower.

As she got off the field for it to set up for the paint gun testing, it crossed her mind that she may be the York in the situation. 'That is, if they're using the same gimmick again. Bullets instead of paint can only surprise so many times.'

As suspected the first batch of rounds were wins by Tex. They had a few close shots, Connie got her leg at one point, Maine had gotten her arm at another. This could've been attributed to their numbers, not Tex's slip ups however.

'Five rounds in and I still have "On Your Knees" going through my head'

Going back to reload for the last round was a little different, when she reached for another paint clip, the handle of a knife was slipped into her palm. She set it down on the table, and looked at Connie who was trying to act nonchalant, as though Beck couldn't see the combat knives currently on her person. South was crouched behind the reloading station, Maine had slipped in a clip that definitely wasn't paint

"I don't know how to use this" 'Also not that confident in my energy right now'

"I can teach you"

"In thirty seconds? That's not gonna happen"

"Then just watch your back"

"I've got a paint gun, I can take on anything" Connie's stance suggested rolling eyes.

"Round begins in Ten"

Once it hit zero, all hell broke loose. Connie had gone in close with the knives, occasionally trying to break away a bit to let Maine aim at her. Beck kept trying to shoot paint in the same openings. It went on like this for a while until South finally stood up with her weapon of choice, a heavy machine gun. Beck recognized it from her classes and rolled out of the way.

"That's one way to spice it up" she accidentally said out loud. If anyone replied, she couldn't hear it over the blare of guns.

Not only did Tex manage to dodge the two sources of bullets coming at her, she also pushed Connie out of their path, shot her head with paint, and ran between the pillars. South demolished around six pillars entirely before stopping to conserve bullets.

Beck heard a small clinck of broken pillars from her left and rolled out of the way as Tex shot past her and shot Maine's gun to his hand. Beck started shooting hers towards where Tex was as Maine smashed his hand free from the paint with the pillar. A quick message appeared on her screen, not about her injuries this time.

"Maine: Gun" She turned towards him and raised the gun a bit as if asking for clarification and he nodded. Beck rolled and ran the three pillar distance between them, south had resumed fire a few more down than that. She tossed the gun quickly at him and with precision, he switched out clips. Beck continued her rolling and running to reach Connie, still lying where she'd been hit by paint.

"Can you hear me?" A muffled noise, the speakers on the helmet being covered by the pink stuff.

"Can I use one of your knives, One noise yes, two no." One noise from Connie and another from South being hit by paint.

"Thank you" She grabbed the closest one and-

A pillar exploded nearby, Tex flying past first and Maine being the one who had hit her through.

'Might as well try, right?' She ran up and Tex began blocking powerful blows from Maine, having lost the second gun now, and the fewer poor aimed ones from Beck.

To say she was surprised to have a blow deflected back onto herself would be a major understatement. The blade sliced her up the side of the leg and Tex managed to shoot her hand to one of the few remaining pillars when it went up in surprise. An injury report floated on her screen and she worked on fixing the slice.

As she waited for the fight between Maine and Tex to die down so she could just be finished off by paint, South Jumped from behind a pillar and started shooting with her original paint gun one handed. The distraction was enough to end the black suited soldier's fight victoriously and gave her chance to finish off the purple soldier. A casual side-glance and one final shot and the testing was over.

No grenade.

York still had his eye.

Beck's laughing at their loss probably wasn't the most comfortable thing for her team, but they tried to roll with it as the paint dissolved. Once her helmet cleared enough to let her see, she saw Tex standing a ways away, a technician tending to the few slices Connie managed to make. Her head was turned to the side, presumably in curiosity, and was pointed directly at Beck. Noticing the attention made Beck have to stop laughing and look away as Tex was called away by the Director.

"What's so funny?" Connie asked, South and Maine both only slightly looking in her direction. Beck cleared her throat and took off her helmet, brushing back her hair and avoiding eye contact.

"No one lost their eye, that was something that was supposed to happen. That's good."

"Who was it?" South spoke up. Maine was getting up to shrug off a few of the doctors that came to check on him. Beck thought for a bit.

"They know who they are, if they want to tell you, they will. If not, it may be because I then told 'em it's what killed them. That damn left side."

"Well now I want to know even more"

"I'll see if they're okay with me telling you" Beck yawned "But after I get some sleep" Doctor Atwood approached her. "Oooor after I check in with her _and_ take a nap."


End file.
